Department of Sociology

Wayne H. Brekhus
Associate Professor

Wayne Brekhus received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University and has been in our department since 1999. His areas of specialization include culture and identity, social control, theory, and sexuality.

Research Interests

My research interests include culture and identity, theory, sexuality, qualitative methods and cognitive sociology. My research program focuses on social identity and social control with a specific interest in the ways individuals negotiate marked and unmarked identity attributions. My recent monographs include Peacocks, Chameleons, Centaurs: Gay Suburbia and the Grammar of Social Identity (2003, University of Chicago Press) and Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology [co-authored with John F. Galliher and David P. Keys] (2004, University of Wisconsin Press). I analyze the interplay between marked (socially "specialized") and unmarked (socially "generic") identities. I began developing a theory of identity as a Ph.D. student at Rutgers, publishing articles on the multifaceted character of sexual identities in Sociological Forum (1996), and on the methodological advantages of studying the unmarked in Sociological Theory (1998). This latter article was reprinted in the French journal Reseaux in 2005. These articles provided the intellectual roots for my first book project on the spatial and temporal dimensions of identity construction.

In this book, I developed a general theory on "the grammar and micro-ecology of identity" from a qualitative case study of gay suburbanites. Analyzing data from intensive interviews ranging from one to five hours with 30 gay suburban men and informal interviews with 100 additional men, I developed three ideal-typical "identity management profiles." These three identity types I refer to as 1) lifestylers, 2) commuters, and 3) integrators. Lifestylers treat their "gayness" as a noun, foregrounding it as their core ingredient of self at all times and in all places (they represent themselves metaphorically as 100% gay, 100% of the time). Commuters treat their "gayness" as a verb, foregrounding their "gay self" in a few places and times but submerging it and foregrounding "other selves" at other times and in other places (they represent themselves metaphorically as 100% gay part of the time but "off duty" as gay the rest of the time). Integrators treat their "gayness" as an adjective, essentially presenting themselves as only "mildly gay" (e.g. 20%, 100% of the time. I use empirical examples approximating each of these heuristic types to explore the competing values of identity singularity, identity mobility, and identity moderation that these respective "identity grammars" battle over. In doing so, I focus on the ways in which individuals weight their competing cultural resources of stigma and privilege to actively shape, manage, and transform their social identities across time and space.

More recent projects have included an intellectual biography of sexuality researcher and activist Laud Humphreys co-authored with John F. Galliher and David P. Keys) and articles reassessing the contributions of Laud Humphreys’ research in both The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy (2004) and Qualitative Inquiry (2005).

Courses Taught

Introduction to Sociology: Culture, Identity and the Mass Media
Self and Society
Recent Theories in Sociology
Senior Seminar
Society and Social Control

Recent Publications

Brekhus, Wayne H, John F. Galliher, and Jaber F. Gubrium. 2005. “The Need
      for Thin Description.” Qualitative Inquiry 11(6): 861-879.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 2005. “Une sociologie de l’ invisibilite’: reorienter notre
      regard” Reseaux: Communication, Technologie, Societe 23:243-272.
      (republication of 1998 Sociological Theory article in French Communications
      Journal).

Galliher, John F, Wayne H. Brekhus and David P. Keys. 2004. Laud
      Humphreys:Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology. Madison, WI:
      University of  Wisconsin Press.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 2004. “Commuting to Homosexuality: Laud Humphreys’
      Unheralded Contribution to the Sociology of Identity.”  International Journal
      of Sociology and Social Policy 24(3-5):58-72.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 2003. Peacocks, Chameleons, Centaurs: Gay Suburbia
      and the Grammar of Social Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Brekhus, Wayne H., Keith L. Brekhus and John F. Galliher. 2001.
      “Social Problems in Social Problems: The Theory and Method of Justice.
      ”Social Problems 48(1):137-143.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 2000. “A Mundane Manifesto.” Journal of Mundane
      Behavior 1(1):89-105.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 1998. "A Sociology of the Unmarked:
      Redirecting Our Focus."Sociological Theory 16(1):34-51.

Brekhus, Wayne H. 1996. "Social Marking and the Mental Coloring of Identity:
      Sexual Identity Construction and Maintenance in the United States.
      "Sociological Forum 11(3):497-522.

312 Middlebush Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211-6100
(573) 882-8331
Fax: (573) 884-6430