Maxine Craig, Ph.D. is a professor in the sociology department and since 2020 has served that department as vice chair and director of the Graduate Program. She received her doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She studies social formations of gender, race and class through qualitative studies of everyday embodied practices. Her book "Sorry I Don’t Dance: Why Men Refuse to Move" was awarded the 2014 Best Publication Award given by the American Sociological Association’s section on body and embodiment. Her book "Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race" won the Best Book of 2002 award on the political history of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S by the Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association. She is affiliated with cultural studies and performance studies, and with the designated emphasis in feminist theory and research, as well as the designated emphasis in African American studies.

Craig’s strong, sustained commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion is reflected in her record of scholarship, formal and informal leadership, teaching and mentoring. In 15 years as a member of the UC Davis faculty, she has fostered networks of mutual support that span multiple departments. 

Craig has served on the executive committees of the Cultural Studies and Performance Studies graduate groups and she was a founding member of the Feminist Research Institute Board that contributed to the establishment of a center whose mission is to foster interdisciplinary research. As the principal investigator for a Davis Humanities Institute proposal, she fostered interdisciplinary dialogue among faculty and graduate students working on issues related to black women’s embodiment. She initiated the cluster to expand the intellectual community available for faculty of color and for all faculty and graduate students working on issues of intersecting race and gender.

Professor Craig will take charge of a thriving and growing center on February 1, 2024  that now includes 24 Faculty Scholars from four colleges and schools and 12 departments across campus. CAMPSSAH builds on the Impact Recruitment Initiative whose origin was in the call for greater numbers of faculty whose teaching, research, and service focused on the experiences, contributions and aspirations of African-American and African Diaspora students and communities. CAMPSSAH represents the successful institutionalization and broadening of IRI to encompass the recruitment and retention of those faculty who bring multicultural perspectives to the social sciences, humanities and the arts with an emphasis on contributions that elevate the voices and visibility of underrepresented students and communities at UC Davis.