The UC Davis Emeriti Association announced Carole Joffe as the recipient of the association’s Distinguished Emeriti Award for 2022-23.

The award honors outstanding scholarly work or service (e.g., service in professional, university, Academic Senate, emeriti/ae, departmental or editorial posts, or on committees) performed since retirement.

In Joffe’s case, since retiring from the Department of Sociology in 2009, she has been a professor on recall in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, UC San Francisco. It is primarily a research position as she continues to focus on the social dimensions of reproductive health, with a particular interest in abortion.

But she also continues to train and mentor the next generation of scholars and medical providers, for example, by teaching webinars on the sociological aspects of reproduction to physicians in two groups: the Fellowship in Family Planning and Physicians for Reproductive Health.

Since “retiring,” she has mentored at least 25 people, including graduate students at UC Davis, and young post-residency physicians and assistant professors. She serves on dissertation and orals committees, reads manuscripts, provides career counseling, coaches practitioners, and gives advice about research.

Obstacle Course

Her scholarly output since she took emeritus status includes three books, the most recent being Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle To Get an Abortion in America (2020), co-authored with David S. Cohen, which received an honorable mention for the 2021 Adele Clarke Book Prize for scholarship on reproduction; 19 articles in peer reviewed scholarly journals; and more than 92 opinion essays and letters to editors in the country’s leading papers.

“By any measure, she is a scholar who remains in her prime,” the Emeriti Association said in its announcement.

Two more books are in the works, according to Diane Wolf, also a professor emerita in the UC Davis Department of Sociology, who nominated Joffe for the Distinguished Emeriti Award. One is a follow-up with Cohen examining how abortion providers and advocates responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24, 2022, decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which  overturned the constitutional right to abortion as established by Roe. V. Wade in 1973.

The other is a second edition of a 2014 book for which she served as the editor, Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (2014).

Cited by RGB

“Professor Joffe commits an enormous effort toward translating her research findings and expertise into public knowledge,” Wolf said. “Her work is read and incorporated by policymakers at the highest levels. As one indicator of her impact, in 2016, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg directly cited one of Professor Joffe’s writings in a case focused on abortion.”

The UC Davis Emeriti Association, or UCDEA, in its announcement, said: “All her support letters emphasize that Professor Joffe is playing a vitally important role as a scholar, mentor and advocate as the U.S. navigates this fraught moment in its decadeslong battle over abortion law.

“Her work has never been more necessary than it is today. The UCDEA applauds Professor Joffe for her courageous efforts to address reproductive rights for women. She continues to bring state, national and global attention to the university and is most deserving of this Distinguished Emeriti Award for 2022-23.”

She will be recognized at the Chancellor’s Emeriti Luncheon, and receive a plaque and a $1,000 award.

Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.