Maxine Baca Zinn

Maxine Baca Zinn (born June 11, 1942), née Baca, is an American sociologist known for her work on gender, race, and ethnicity and particularly, the experience of women of color at the intersection of race, class, and gender.

Baca Zinn has published a large number of articles and book chapters as well as co-authored several sociology books on the family. Much of her work focuses specifically on Mexican American families.

Early life and education Maxine Baca Zinn was born on June 11, 1942, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Presente and Louise Duran Baca. She grew up in Santa Fe where she met and married her high school sweetheart, Alan Zinn. In 1975, she moved to Flint, Michigan where she began a teaching appointment at the University of Michigan instructing courses in sociology and Chicano Studies (1975–1978) and became assistant professor, then professor of sociology until 1990 when she moved to Michigan State University as professor and Senior Research Associate at the Julian Samora Research Institute. While in her positions at Michigan State and University of Michigan, Baca Zinn has completed a number of visiting professorships concurrent positions within her institutions.

Awards She has been awarded several honors including the Faculty Special Merit Award for Scholarly or Creative Achievement (1975), the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Michigan Association of Governing Boards (1982), the Cheryl Miller Lecturer Award on Women and Social Change (1989), alumnus awards from both California State University, Long Beach (1990) and the University of New Mexico (1993), the Meyers Center Book Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America (1997) and two prestige awards from the American Sociological Association in 2000.