Claire Whitlinger

Claire Whitlinger

Herman N. Hipp Associate Professor of Sociology; Founder and Co-Director, Intergroup Dialogue Program

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Claire Whitlinger is the Herman N. Hipp Associate Professor of Sociology and the founder and co-director of Furman’s Intergroup Dialogue Program. A scholar of collective memory, race, and political reputation, she is interested in how people make sense of contested pasts and what those interpretations reveal about communities, institutions, and public life.

Her first book, Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), examines fifty years of commemoration and silence surrounding the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Her current research builds on those interests through projects on political reputation and Civil War memory. Together, this work asks how reputations and public memories take shape, why they differ across communities and audiences, and what happens when established understandings of the past are challenged.

Teaching is an extension of her research, and she invites students to untangle difficult sociological questions in courses on theory, race, social movements, and qualitative methods. Beyond the classroom, she brings students on as research collaborators, guiding them through the rewarding, often unpredictable work of forming questions and gathering evidence.

That spirit of shared inquiry carries into her leadership of the Intergroup Dialogue Program. In dialogue classes and workshops, she invites participants to listen closely to competing perspectives and stay curious about how others experience the world, helping them use sociology to examine their own assumptions and ask clearer questions about the world around them.

Honors and Awards

  • Herman N. Hipp Professorship, Furman University, 2026
  • Furman Standard Research Grant, Furman University, 2026
  • Meritorious Diversity & Inclusion Award for Faculty, Furman University, 2019

Education

  • Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
  • M.A., Sociology, University of Michigan
  • B.A., Sociology, George Washington University

Professional Activities

Whitlinger’s current scholarship centers on two collaborative research programs. The first examines political reputation and the ways political figures acquire different—and sometimes sharply contradictory—reputations among different audiences. This work focuses particularly on Southern politicians whose careers were shaped by the politics of race and the civil rights era.

Her second major project returns to questions of collective memory and commemoration. Working with faculty colleagues, students, and community partners, Whitlinger is studying contemporary efforts to reshape Civil War memory through the commemoration of Black Civil War soldiers. This research forms the basis of a new book project examining what happens when communities introduce new stories, monuments, and historical narratives into landscapes already marked by contested memories of the past.

Her research brings her into conversation with scholars across institutions and disciplines, community organizations working to interpret and preserve local histories, and Furman students who participate in the research process. She has published research with student co-authors and regularly involves students in all stages of the research process. These partnerships reflect her commitment to a liberal arts education in which students have opportunities not only to learn from scholarship, but also to participate in creating it.

Whitlinger is also committed to bringing sociological research beyond the academy. Her work on race, memory, and commemoration has been featured by PBS’s American Experience and the USA Today Network, as well as in podcasts, public lectures, and other public-facing venues. She has contributed to public history initiatives at Furman and beyond, working to make sociological research part of broader conversations about how communities understand and reckon with difficult pasts.

Whitlinger’s research has appeared in journals including Social Forces, Sociological Perspectives, Mobilization, and the Annual Review of Law and Social Science. She is the author of Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

Publications

  • Fine, Gary Alan, and Claire Whitlinger. 2026. “Respectable Racists: Fragmented Reputations and Divided Political Audiences.” Social Forces 105(1): 257–274.
  • Whitlinger, Claire, and Daniel R. Morrison. 2026. “Facing Slavery as Saving Face: Racial Cynicism in Student Perceptions of Universities Studying Slavery.” Sociological Perspectives. doi:10.1177/07311214261417999.
  • Whitlinger, Claire, and Gary Alan Fine. 2025. “Demagogues in Action: The Reputational Rise and Demise of ‘Cotton’ Tom Heflin.” Social Forces 103(3): 1107–1124.
  • Whitlinger, Claire. 2020. Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  • Whitlinger, Claire. 2015. “Countermemory to Collective Memory: Acknowledging the ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders.” Sociological Forum 30(S1): 648–670.
  • Tsutsui, Kiyoteru, Claire Whitlinger, and Alwyn Lim. 2012. “International Human Rights Law and Social Movements: States’ Resistance and Civil Society’s Insistence.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 8: 367–396.

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