Cathy J. Cohen

Cathy J. Cohen work emphasiez the importance of sexuality as implicated in broader structues of power , intersecting with inseparable issues of race, gender and class oppression. She points to the examples of single mothers on welfare -particularly women of color- but also sex workers who may be heterosexual but are not heteronormative and thus are not perceived as "normal" or "worthy of state support" or "moral".
Her general field of specialisation is American politics, although her research interests include women politics, lesbian and gay politics and social movements. She is the author of the book The Boundaries of Blackness : AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics on 1999 ; co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics : An Alternative Reader on 1997. With Frederic Harris she published Transgressing Boundaries : Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities.
Lately, she published in Patrick Johnson and Mae Henderson's critical anthology Black Queer Studies, "Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens".