Tracy Xavia Karner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

• Phone: (713)743-3961
• Email: txkarner@uh.edu
• Office: 495 Philip G. Hoffman Hall

Professor Tracy Xavia Karner uses visual technologies and resources to study the social construction and transformation of self and identity. She has explored these processes on the individual, social-cultural, organizational, and community levels in a variety of contexts, including hospitals, community service agencies, nationalist movements, and the mass media. A visual sociologist, Dr. Karner is also the director of the Visual Studies program.

An award winning teacher and a nationally-known expert in the field of qualitative sociology, she is the recipient of an award from the American Sociological Association and of more than $2.7 million in grants to support her collaborative research projects. Dr. Karner has coauthored a textbook with Carol Warren , Discovering Qualitative Research: Field Methods, Interviews, and Analysis, 2nd Edition , (Oxford University Press, 2010) .

She has authored articles exploring visual and cultural perspectives with regard to gender, mental health, social policy, art aesthetics, ethnicity, and nationalist movements. Dr. Karner has published in several journals, including Symbolic Interactionism, Qualitative Health Research, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Communication and Cognition, American Studies Journal, masculinities, The Clinical Sociology Review, Journal of Aging Studies, Journal of Aging and Mental Health, The American Sociologist, Journal of Applied Gerontology, and Journal of Aging and Social Policy.

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Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1994
• M.A., Sociology, Idaho State University, 1988
• B.S., Design, University of California-Davis, 1983

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Honors

• Faculty Development Initiative Program A Award, University of Houston , 2008
• Ross Lence Teaching Excellence Award, Social Sciences, University of Houston 2007
• Finalist, UH Teaching Excellence Award in Tenure/Tenure Track, 2006
• Finalist, UH Teaching Excellence Award in Innovative Teaching, 2006
• Travel Grant, Friends of Women Studies, University of Houston , 2006
• Research Fellowship, Friends of Women Studies, University of Houston, 2004

Selected Publications

• Karner, Tracy Xavia, 2009. “Dualities of Gender and Transformation” foreword pps. 12-20 in Shelley Calton’s Hard Knocks: Rolling with the Derby Girls. Germany: Kehrer Verlag.
• Karner, Tracy Xavia, 2009. “Fearless, Outspoken, and Absolutely Free: Women and Creativity” in Thrive (Caroline Goeser, editor), Houston: Women’s Studies at the University of Houston.
• Karner, Tracy Xavia, 2008. “Photographic Knowing: Engaging Perspectives through Photography,” SPOT, Fall: 22-25.
• Karner, T.X. 2009. “Changing Lens: an Autoethnographic Account of Seeing and Knowing” in Selected Articles from the 2nd Annual Congress on International Qualitative Research (Selección de artículos del segundo congreso internacioal de investigación cualitativa), University of Guanajuato, Mexico .
• Karner, T. X. 2008. “If only time healed all wounds: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Older Men” Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging , special issue edited by Edward Thompson, Spring: 82-87.
• Karner, T. X. and Donna Bobbit-Zeher. 2006. “Losing Selves: Dementia Care as Disruption and Transformation” Symbolic Interaction, 28(4): 549-570.
• Karas, J. and T.X. Karner. 2005. “Understanding the Diabetic Body-Self” Qualitative Health Research, 15(8): 1086-1104.
• Whitney, Julie, Mark E. Kunik , Victor Molinari , Frederick G. Lopez , Tracy X. Karner. 2004. “Psychological Predictors of Admission and Discharge: Global Assessment of Functioning Scale Scores for Geropsychiatric Inpatients” Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 8(6): 505-513.
• Montgomery, R., T.X. Karner and K. Kosloski. 2003. “Weighing the Success of a National Demonstration to Create State Responsibility for Long Term Care,” Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 14(3-4): 119-139. Reprinted in: F. Caro & R. Morris (Eds.), Devolution and Aging Policy. New York: Haworth, (2002).
• Starns, M., T.X. Karner, and R. Montgomery. 2002. “Exemplars of Successful Alzheimer’s Demonstration Projects,” Home Health Care Quarterly, 21 (3-4): 141-175. Reprinted in A New Look at Community Respite Programs: Utilization, Satisfaction, and Development (R. Montgomery, editor) Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc. 2002.
• Karner, T.X. and Hall, L.C. 2002. “Successful Strategies for Serving Diverse Populations,” Home Health Care Quarterly, 21 (3-4): 107-132. Reprinted in A New Look at Community Respite Programs: Utilization, Satisfaction, and Development (R. Montgomery, editor) Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc. 2002.
• Montgomery, R., T.X. Karner, K. Kosloski, and J. Schaefer. 2002. “Initial Findings from the Evaluation of the Alzheimer’s Disease Demonstration Grant to States Program,” Home Health Care Quarterly, 21 (3-4): 5-32. Reprinted in A New Look at Community Respite Programs: Utilization, Satisfaction, and Development (R. Montgomery, editor) Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc. 2002.
• Kosloski, K., J. Schaefer, T.X. Karner, and D. Allwardt. 2002. “The Role of Cultural Factors on Clients’ Attitudes toward Caregiving and Perceptions of Services,” Home Health Care Quarterly, 21 (3-4): 65-88. Reprinted in A New Look at Community Respite Programs: Utilization, Satisfaction, and Development (R. Montgomery, editor) Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc. 2002.
• Karner, T.X. 2001. “Caring for an Aging Society: Cohort Values and Eldercare Services,” Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 13(1): 15-36.

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Research Interests

 

• Visual and Qualitative Sociology
• Sociology of Culture, Narrative, and Self
• Medical Sociology /Mental Health /Death & Dying
• Community Services and Program Evaluation

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Teaching

Graduate Courses

• Seminar in Visual Sociology
• Seminar in Sociology of Culture
• Seminar in Gender and Trauma
• Seminar in Qualitative Methodology
• Seminar in Medical Care
• Gender and Dependency in the Life Course (KU)

Undergraduate Courses

• American Society
• Death and Dying, Sociology of
• Family, Sociology of
• Health Care, Sociology of
• Introduction to Sociology
• Qualitative Methods
• Social Problems and American Values (KU)
• Social Psychology
• Senior Seminar on Masculinities
• Senior Seminar on Visual Sociology
• Visual Sociology

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Affiliations

• Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionism (SSSI)
• International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA)
• American Sociological Association (ASA)

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Links and Downloads

• Visual Studies at the University of Houston
• The Research Room
• Women’s Studies at the University of Houston
• Dr. Karner's CV
  

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Department of Sociology | Office: 450 Philip Hoffman Hall | (713) 743-3940 | (713) 743-3943 fax