Raleigh News and Observer Obituary

Rachel graduated in 1970 with a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Carleton College, Northfield, MN. She earned an M.S. in Sociology in 1974, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1976 (with Economics and Statistics Minor) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  In the course of her professional career, she was Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec (1976-1980), Senior Study Director (1978-1981), and later Research Associate of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (1981-1985), at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago, and Lecturer in the Social Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago (1979).

She moved to Chapel Hill, NC in 1981 and was Assistant Professor (1981-1984), Associate Professor (1984-1988), and Professor of Sociology (1988-present) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 2002, she was named William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor. Since 1981, she has also been a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center at UNC.

At UNC, Rachel also held administrative positions including Vice Chair of the Division of Social Sciences (1991-1992, 1993-1994) and Acting Associated Dean for Programs and Budgets of the College of Arts and Sciences (1991-1992). At the time of her death, she was Chair of the Department of Sociology (since 2000). In her research, Rachel Rosenfeld was interested in the influence of social stratification on career and job mobility, particularly for women. Her recent research included studies of the U.S. Women's movement, work histories of women, academic careers, and work-family policies in advanced industrialized countries. She has been working with Heike Trappe (former CPC postdoctoral scholar) on gender inequality in the early work life in the former East and West Germany and in the U.S.

In the course of her highly productive research career, she published two books: Farm Women: Work, Farm, and Family in the United States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985; Paperback edition, 1987.), and Reconstructing the Academy (editor, with Jean O'Barr and Elizabeth Minnich; Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1988). She has published numerous articles in professional journals including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Science, Social Forces and Social Science Research.

She received numerous honors and awards including the Sociologists for Women in Society Award for Outstanding Mentoring (1992), and the first Sociology Department Graduate Student Association Award for Excellence in Mentoring (1998). In 1995, Rosenfeld was the first recipient of the Katherine Jocher-Belle Boone Beard Award of the Southern Sociological society; the award recognizes distinguished scholarly contributions to the understanding of gender in society. She was awarded the Lara G. Hoggard Professorship for outstanding midcareer faculty (1993-1999). In 1995-96, she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, CA, and in Fall 1996 a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. She was the 1998 Alpha Kappa Delta honor society speaker at Mississippi State University, and 1997-98 Vice President of the Southern Sociological Society. She was President-elect (2000-2001) and President (2001-2002) of the Southern Sociological Society. She is currently Chair of the Publications Committee of the American Sociological Association, and she was a deputy editor of the American Sociological Review (1997-1999).

Survivors include her parents, Ethel and Jerome Rosenfeld of Chapel Hill, formerly of Greers Ferry, AR; sisters, Deborah Kohls of Chapel Hill, Diana Rosenfeld of Cordova, TN; brothers Peter Rosenfeld of Collingsworth, NJ and George Rosenfeld of Chapel Hill; nieces and nephews, Rachel "Shay" Kohls, Nathan Pang, Jessica Kohls, Leah Babb-Rosenfeld, Reid Kohls, and Josh Pang; and her partner, Kirk Denny.

Funeral services will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 29, at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church, 4907 Garret Rd., Durham, followed by an informal gathering in the Fellowship Hall. Interment will be at the Old Carboro Cemetery following the gathering. Arrangements are by Walker Funeral Home of Chapel Hill.

A trust is being established in memory of Rachel at the University of N.C., Chapel Hill through the Department of Sociology. If this is your preference, checks may be made out to: Dept. of Sociology, and mailed to U.N.C.-CH, Dept. of Sociology, CB# 3120, 155 Hamilton Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3120. Please designate the check for Rachel Rosenfeld Trust.