Biographical Statement

My name is Dawn Tawwater, and I am a sociologist and anthropologist with more than three decades of experience in higher education. I hold a Master's degree in Sociology from Texas Woman's University, and I have completed my Ph.D (ABD) in Cultural Anthropology at Texas State University, where my doctoral proposal focused on climate change, food production, and social inequities in rural communities.

I have taught at both two-year and four-year institutions in Texas and New York and have been a member of the Austin Community College faculty since 2006. Throughout my career, I have taught a wide range of courses in sociology and anthropology, including Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, American Minorities, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology of Health and Medicine, Human Sexuality, and Race and Ethnic Relations.

My academic interests center on social inequality, identity, culture, community development, climate change, and social justice. I am particularly interested in how institutions, policies, and social structures shape opportunities and outcomes for individuals and communities. My current research explores various topics in rural areas of central Texas, including local resistance to data centers, nuclear site production, and food production - land use.

In addition to teaching and research, I have been actively involved in professional and community service throughout my career. I served as President of the Association for Humanist Sociology and have participated in a variety of leadership, mentoring, and governance roles within higher education. I am also the author of Sociology and Your World, a text that examines the ways culture, power, and privilege influence everyday social life. I am also currently the Vice President/President Elect of the largest ACC faculty organization in the AFAEC.

Whether in the classroom, through research, or in service to the community, my goal has always been to encourage thoughtful inquiry, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the social forces that shape our world. I believe sociology and anthropology offer powerful tools for understanding both our differences and our shared experiences, and I remain committed to making those perspectives accessible and meaningful to a broad audience.

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
—Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“Those who have the good fortune to be able to devote themselves to scientific pursuits must be the first to place their knowledge at the service of humanity.”
—Karl Marx, quoted by Paul Lafargue (1890/1972)