Teaching

Within the Sociology department Maxine Baca Zinn specializes in teaching the following courses: Sociology of the Family, Gender and Society, Race and Gender, Race and Ethnic Relations, Political Sociology, Qualitative Research Methods, Undergraduate Courses, Introduction to Sociology, Race and Ethnic Relations, Introduction to Women's Studies, Gender and Society, {Class, Race, and Gender}, Family and Society, Ethnicity in American Society, Sociology of the Barrio, Senior Seminar in Sociology, Social Structure and Diversity in the U.S., The Profession of Sociology, Graduate Courses, American Institutions, Ethnicity in American Society, Gender and Power, Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender, and Structural Inequalities and Families.
These topics/specialties have had a great impact in Maxine Baca Zinn's career. She has many publications in which these areas are evident. Primarily focusing in the family, race and gender issues. Within the realm of gender she is interested in gender coping strategies in racial ethnic families. Emphasizing in the structured factors of society which contribute to the diversity in families. She is currently working on research projects which are tied to areas of identity and gender inequality, colored women in social sciences, and home schooling in Mexican communities. Because of her focus and dedicated analysis to the Latino culture/society in Latino families in the US she is recognized nationally as a leading scholar in that area.
One of her most popular articles about education is Nurturing Graduate Students: Integrative Scholarship Through Textbook Projects, in which she talks about the controversy involving sociology books and how some professors opt to teach without them because they find them "simplistic" while others believe that they are effective for sociological knowledge. In the article she addresses both stand points, but encourages the use of textbooks because she believes they provide the opportunity for the students to undergo a mentoring process and later introduced to skills which would be beneficial to their exposure in the "academic marketplace". She believes that their use is important because it would aid the graduate students in the constant changes, new ideas, and research.