https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/home daily 1.0 2025-06-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/a73d2286-012e-4ed7-aaab-fd37f97ba30e/HCC_portraitrelease.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/b4f542c2-196c-4e1f-9c79-dfa50b822caa/IMG_0262.JPEG Home - Beer and Society is “highly recommended” by Choice Magazine! January 2023, Vol 60, Number 5. This interesting, creative book blends academic scholarship with beer industry expertise to produce a unique sociological and psychological perspective on the function and meaning of beer, especially craft beers, in American society. Developing the concept of “beer psychology,” Wilson and Stone (both, Univ. of New Mexico) examine the way beer drinking serves as a highly ritualized social event that fosters sociability and nurtures community identity. Beer drinking practices reflect underlying psychological principles shaped by society. One's choice of beer is personal, but it is simultaneously dictated by broader cultural norms. The authors critically assess the subjective meanings of authenticity, quality, and taste, which forces readers to reflect on the many taken-for-granted expressions of beer consumption. The authors also address the racial, class, and gendered dynamics of beer drinking, which provides an avenue for exploring how beer drinking reinforces cultural values while challenging the divisions underlying society. This well-written book blends academic arguments with a personalized style that allows general readers, beer connoisseurs, brewers, and industry specialists to understand the nuances of the beer industry and the social and psychological impact beer drinking has had on society. --F. H. Smith, North Carolina A & T State University Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. Beer and Society is co-authored with Dr. Asa Stone. For more information about the book and publisher discount code, click title for link. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609438825473-NWH1CQYR6NU5PDXS1K36/book+image.jpg Home - Front of the House, Back of the House is named a 2021 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine! Based on six years of first-hand ethnographic research, Dr. Wilson’s new book explores how the restaurant industry reinforces and perpetuates socioeconomic divides among its workforce. Released in January 2021 from NYU Press, Front of the House, Back of the House: Race and Inequality in the Lives of Restaurant Workers is available now. The book was featured as part of Choice Review’s monthly newsletter: 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles: Social Justice and Activism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/2bce62b2-4f72-49e1-81e6-3197da2bc25b/blue_nmpbs_logo_NO_TM.png Home New Mexico PBS In Focus Featured Interview with Dr. Wilson about inequality in the restaurant industry. https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/research daily 0.75 2026-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/62f4820d-fa84-44ae-bee6-43f22e39b619/IMG_0819.jpeg Research The Labor of Lifestyle: Health, Wellness, and the Pursuit of Better Selves Dr. Wilson’s current project investigates the first-hand labor experiences of people who engage in lifestyle work. Lifestyle work is part of a small but rapidly growing health and wellness industry that generates over $23 billion annually and is comprised of 370,000 workers in the US. Lifestyle work centers on the provision of personal services geared towards helping people construct “healthy,” well-curated lifestyles. Workers in this industry must pitch themselves as knowledgeable experts in their specific modalities while also catering to popular consumer trends, such as self-care and using natural remedies. Framing lifestyle work are also a complex array of issues ranging from widespread dissatisfaction with the Western healthcare system, the rise of social media “wellness influencers,” and the spread of health-related misinformation. Researching the everyday labor realities of lifestyle workers will break new ground in understanding how people manage their work lives in an era defined by unpredictable employment and changing cultural ideas about how to “be well.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609455867228-G46ZETA72VOYKN3NU0BC/2018-05-12+19.49.18.jpeg Research - Handcrafted Careers, Authenticity, and Artisanal Consumption in the Craft Beer Industry Dr. Wilson’s recent project (2019-2024) is an ethnography of craft beer work in United States. Dr. Wilson examines how race, class, and gender inequalities manifest in modern craft industries that are centered on passion, artisanship, and authenticity. This research asks big questions about how racism, sexism, and class dynamics impact the career paths of craft beer’s workers, exploring why (and how) men tend to move into creative roles of authority, whereas women are steered towards hospitality and working-class or Latinx workers into warehouse roles. Within the umbrella of this project, Dr. Wilson also co-authored Beer and Society: How We Make Beer, and Beer Makes Us. Co-written with Dr. Asa Stone, an Advanced Cicerone and psychology professor, the book explores issues of identity, work, business, and culture in the world of beer. Drawing from both scholarly insights and industry expertise, this book offers a critical perspective on how beer and society are intertwined, including how beer is embedded within our larger economic system, racial hierarchies, and existing systems of power in our society. Together, these scholars detail how the recent growth of women and people of color in the beer industry is reshaping these craft workplaces to be more inclusive for both workers and consumers, though these efforts have also been met with pockets of resistance within the industry. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609457725611-UMJTSKQ029LA90EORF5Y/b5a_tipjar.jpg Research Tip Work in the New Economy Tipping, as a deeply-held cultural practice in the U.S., has come under recent scrutiny due to labor activism surrounding tipped minimum wage laws and the disproportionate number of Black and Brown workers employed in these types of service workplaces. As his research on tipped workers — which builds on previous restaurant scholarship — is uncovering, tipping involves a blurry line between gift giving and market exchange that can reinforce a shadowy system of racial inequality in service workplaces. This is due to both limited access to higher-earning tipped jobs by members of disadvantaged groups, as well as the racialized, classed, and gendered assumptions that tipping customers bring with them into the service encounter. Over the course of this project, Dr. Wilson expects to conduct further field research with two other groups of tipped workers over the next two years, exploring variations in meanings and manipulations within a tip-based economy that now amounts to over $47 billion dollars annually in the U.S. restaurant industry alone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609455764936-1TBQ44I1B9UJMM1FJ0NV/book+image.jpg Research - Examining Restaurant Work and Workers in Los Angeles (Past Project) How workers navigate race, gender, and class in the food service industry Two unequal worlds of work exist within the upscale restaurant scene of Los Angeles. White, college-educated servers operate in the front of the house—also known as the public areas of the restaurant—while Latino immigrants toil in the back of the house and out of customer view. In Front of the House, Back of the House, Eli Revelle Yano Wilson shows us what keeps these workers apart, exploring race, class, and gender inequalities in the food service industry. Drawing on research at three different high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, Wilson highlights why these inequalities persist in the twenty-first century, pointing to discriminatory hiring and supervisory practices that ultimately grant educated whites access to the most desirable positions. Additionally, he shows us how workers navigate these inequalities under the same roof, making sense of their jobs, their identities, and each other in a world that reinforces their separateness. Front of the House, Back of the House takes us behind the scenes of the food service industry, providing a window into the unequal lives of white and Latino restaurant workers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609455867228-G46ZETA72VOYKN3NU0BC/2018-05-12+19.49.18.jpeg Research - Handcrafted Careers, Authenticity, and Artisanal Consumption in the Craft Beer Industry Dr. Wilson’s recent project (2019-2024) is an ethnography of craft beer work in United States. Dr. Wilson examines how race, class, and gender inequalities manifest in modern craft industries that are centered on passion, artisanship, and authenticity. This research asks big questions about how racism, sexism, and class dynamics impact the career paths of craft beer’s workers, exploring why (and how) men tend to move into creative roles of authority, whereas women are steered towards hospitality and working-class or Latinx workers into warehouse roles. Within the umbrella of this project, Dr. Wilson also co-authored Beer and Society: How We Make Beer, and Beer Makes Us. Co-written with Dr. Asa Stone, an Advanced Cicerone and psychology professor, the book explores issues of identity, work, business, and culture in the world of beer. Drawing from both scholarly insights and industry expertise, this book offers a critical perspective on how beer and society are intertwined, including how beer is embedded within our larger economic system, racial hierarchies, and existing systems of power in our society. Together, these scholars detail how the recent growth of women and people of color in the beer industry is reshaping these craft workplaces to be more inclusive for both workers and consumers, though these efforts have also been met with pockets of resistance within the industry. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609457725611-UMJTSKQ029LA90EORF5Y/b5a_tipjar.jpg Research - image from Oregonlive.com Tip Work in the New Economy Tipping, as a deeply-held cultural practice in the U.S., has come under recent scrutiny due to labor activism surrounding tipped minimum wage laws and the disproportionate number of Black and Brown workers employed in these types of service workplaces. As his research on tipped workers — which builds on previous restaurant scholarship — is uncovering, tipping involves a blurry line between gift giving and market exchange that can reinforce a shadowy system of racial inequality in service workplaces. This is due to both limited access to higher-earning tipped jobs by members of disadvantaged groups, as well as the racialized, classed, and gendered assumptions that tipping customers bring with them into the service encounter. Over the course of this project, Dr. Wilson expects to conduct further field research with two other groups of tipped workers over the next two years, exploring variations in meanings and manipulations within a tip-based economy that now amounts to over $47 billion dollars annually in the U.S. restaurant industry alone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609455764936-1TBQ44I1B9UJMM1FJ0NV/book+image.jpg Research - Examining Restaurant Work and Workers in Los Angeles (Past Project) How workers navigate race, gender, and class in the food service industry Two unequal worlds of work exist within the upscale restaurant scene of Los Angeles. White, college-educated servers operate in the front of the house—also known as the public areas of the restaurant—while Latino immigrants toil in the back of the house and out of customer view. In Front of the House, Back of the House, Eli Revelle Yano Wilson shows us what keeps these workers apart, exploring race, class, and gender inequalities in the food service industry. Drawing on research at three different high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, Wilson highlights why these inequalities persist in the twenty-first century, pointing to discriminatory hiring and supervisory practices that ultimately grant educated whites access to the most desirable positions. Additionally, he shows us how workers navigate these inequalities under the same roof, making sense of their jobs, their identities, and each other in a world that reinforces their separateness. Front of the House, Back of the House takes us behind the scenes of the food service industry, providing a window into the unequal lives of white and Latino restaurant workers. https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/media daily 0.75 2026-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609458223301-M8OIHP3TANDCS8BF64L0/DSC00764.jpg Media - Recent Media Coverage -Campaign for the American Reader. “P.99: Eli Revelle Yano Wilson’s Handcrafted Careers” October 2024. - New Books Network. “Handcrafted Careers: Conversation with Dr. Eli R. Wilson.” Fall 2024. - Craft Beer Professionals. “Book Release: Handcrafted Careers.” 9/17/24. - “Kitchen Rage.” The Weekend with Terry Travis. KKOB. 5/7/23. - "In an era of ‘tipflation,’ how much gratuity to give and when?” Greater LA, KCRW. 4/27/23. -New Mexico PBS In-Focus “Front of the House, Back of the House”: featured interview 7/23/21. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/69e72e75-1500-40c4-bf83-991feae0bca9/Screenshot+2025-02-10+at+11.55.25%E2%80%AFAM.png Media - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/6627f648-4938-4509-aff1-e7d1d1c8eb0e/Handcrafted+Careers+event_RiversEdge.jpg Media - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/76c0898e-53d5-4d8c-acda-94f1ac88c235/Screen+Shot+2022-04-26+at+10.12.27+AM.png Media - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/pagecv daily 0.75 2026-01-16 https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/publications daily 0.75 2026-01-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/6a298288-ef37-4d5f-90d7-ae9f8d4508bf/IMG_0707.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/0e474ccc-8c4e-414f-a285-7382f7be6542/IMG_8863.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/afca3841-71c0-4142-b782-c9386b95fad2/IMG_8574.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/2f8b4f44-275e-4981-a51e-8423481b859a/IMG_7182.JPG Publications - Peer-reviewed articles on passion-centered careers, artisanal identity, and unequal employment opportunities among craft beer workers “It Could Never Be Just About Beer: Race, Gender, and Marked Professional Identity in the US Craft Beer Industry". Journal of Professions and Organization, 2022. “Privileging Passion: How the Cultural Logic of Work Perpetuates Social Inequality in the Craft Beer Industry.” Socius, 2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/8903777e-805f-4734-95a6-98ebf44e99bb/Screen+Shot+2022-04-26+at+9.43.47+AM.png Publications - Make it stand out Beer and Society: How We Make Beer and Beer Makes Us takes readers on a lively journey through the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of the modern beer world. This book illustrates that beer is far more than a beverage. As a finely-crafted cultural product, beer can be a part of our identity, a source of pleasure and camaraderie, an object of connoisseurship, and a livelihood for those who are behind the beer itself. Drawing on leading sociological and psychological perspectives, the authors argue that our enduring relationship with beer reflects the very roots of our society, including its collective values and norms, power structures, and persistent inequities based on race, gender, sexuality, and social class. Beer and Society explores beer as an embodiment of who we are and a force to energize social change. **For a 30% discount, click HERE and enter LXFANDF30 when purchasing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/bdb70dac-2369-4cef-beaf-67d426e0f1df/slow-shutter-speed-1-of-5.jpg Publications - “Sticking to It or Opting for Alternatives?” Qualitative Sociology 2022. In an era of nonstandard work—where more Americans engage with multiple jobs across fluid employment contexts—how do people manage key aspects of their work lives, such as their occupational identity and schedules? Dr. Wilson, together with his co-author Dr. David Schieber, examines two cases of nonstandard workers facing differing degrees of contested work identity—frontline restaurant workers and sex workers. The authors find that while these workers use similar strategies to manage their employment that involve identity work and job searching, their decision to stick to their line of work or opt for alternatives stems in part from the symbolic characteristics of their respective jobs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1628020788923-PATBAG5F4W5DUDB8S5IF/images.jpg Publications - White-Collar Locals in Hawai‘i In this study Dr. Wilson examines how workers, particularly Japanese and Chinese Americans, enact "Local" identity in a white-collar workplace in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Based on in-depth interviews as well as ethnographic research, he finds that the process of group boundary-making fosters a sense of solidarity and shared cultural connection among some workers while being exclusionary towards others. White-collar Local identity serves as a distinct panethnic, place-based identity vis-a-vis Haole (white), but it also reinforces existing hierarchies of race and class in the islands. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609460340461-NTEARUO92VUINI5T7IG6/book+image.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609461426217-HDGSCM1V0RHER8PS2I33/1024px-Closed_Due_to_Health_Crisis_49671420806-1024x630.jpg Publications - Public Essays on Restaurant Work/Workers “Can Restaurants Become Drivers of Opportunity—Not Inequality?” March 8, 2021. Zocalo Public Square. "Taken Out and Carried Away: Precarious Restaurant Lives During the Pandemic." December 30, 2020. From the Square, NYU Press blog. “The Employment Armageddon Facing the U.S. Restaurant Industry.” Eli R. Wilson. April 16, 2020. Contexts. “Pandemic Inequalities: Assessing the Fallout in the Restaurant Industry.” April 15, 2020. UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment blog and LA Social Science Research blog. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES TO HELP RESTAURANT WORKERS AND INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS: *Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) Pandemic Response Fund for Restaurant Workers *Independent Restaurant Coalition https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/teaching-and-mentorship daily 0.75 2025-06-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1609458511552-28SDCPAN6Y84B9VINGZH/DSC01650.jpg Teaching - Teaching. Dr. Wilson’s award-winning approach as a sociology instructor is to inspire students to scrutinize the social world in both critical and imaginative ways. He takes special care to ensure the classroom culture is socially inclusive — an invigorating intellectual space where everyone is expected to participate as peers. Extended teaching statement available upon request. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/12483968-331f-4cb4-bac5-4c934588cc2c/IMG_9236.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/1622135037104-OS1CKN7BZICV0OYZ0OZD/download.png Teaching Dr. Wilson was recently an ECURE teaching fellow (2020-22), which strives to bring undergraduate research experiences into the classroom. https://www.elirevelleyanowilson.com/contact daily 0.75 2025-09-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fee0ad88500a82fe9d3fc09/aed57a72-5e2a-4a73-8376-911743d8053a/ERW_f25.jpg Contact - Connect with Dr. Wilson Email erwilson18@unm.edu Social Media Instagram: @eli.hapa Professional Pages UNM Department of Sociology ResearchGate LinkedIn