Jannette Swanson is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at the University at Albany.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2001 from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota where she double majored in Sociology and Political Science (with an emphasis on Public Service).  Her areas of specialization are Race/Ethnicity and Urban Communities.  Her current research interest involves incorporating Latinos into the broader literature of race-based wealth inequality in the United States.  She routinely teaches a variety of undergraduate-level sociology courses, including Social Problems, Research Methods, Race and Ethnicity, Community and Urban Sociology, and Sports and Society at the University at Albany and the College of Saint Rose. In 2006, she also taught a graduate-level Urban Community Development course for the University at Albany’s Planning Department. She was the recipient of the Sociology Department’s 2006 Paul Meadows Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2007 she was nominated for and received a university-wide Excellence in Teaching Award from the University at Albany.