Austin Lee

Austin Lee is a Research Fellow at the Boston University Society of Fellows, Department of Sociology, specializing in race, gender, and sexuality. Her work focuses on extended kin networks, communal mothering practices among Black women, and the intersections of antiblackness with gender and sexual norms. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Black Studies from Amherst College.

Her research explores the nuanced dynamics of Black families, gender conformity, and compulsory heterosexuality, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration. She has held prestigious fellowships, including the UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship (2023) and the Turner-Schulman Graduate Fellowship (2021).

Her book manuscript, Feeling Communal Motherhood, employs affect and Black feminist theories to analyze how class and parental status shape communal care practices in Black kin networks. Her recent work addresses topics like gentrification's impact on Black spatiality and anti-gay stigma in religious communities.

Key contributions include studies on Black women’s romantic challenges, childless Black women’s experiences, and LGBTQ+ inclusivity in churches. Lee’s interdisciplinary approach bridges sociology, geography, and cultural studies, emphasizing intersectional frameworks to address systemic inequalities.