Dr. Risman believes very heavily in public sociology. She thinks that sociologists "have an ethical obligation to share [their] expertise with the public." A lot of this idea can be found in her teaching, but she also thinks that they "must effectively bring sociology outside [the] classrooms, to give back to [the] communities." A good example of this would be her book Gender Vertigo, which can easily be understood by all of us who are not sociologists. Just getting her ideas out into the general public is a very helpful, but controversial way to practice sociology. She said that even though the ideas of public sociology are "winning legitimacy," she says that "to care too much about taking sociology outside academe or about one's teaching still marks one as a less-serious scholar."However, this hasn't stopped Barbara Risman from giving 21 public lectures between 1998 and 2005, and teaching at 3 different universities for 25 years. She has also had 46 conference presentations from 1980 until 2005.
She is also very involved in the Council on Contemporary Families, which continues to bring issues private issues into the public eye. The Council on Contemporary Families sees itself as "enhancing the national conversation about what contemporary families need and how these needs can best be met,"The University of Illinois at Chicago tells us that "Professor Risman has a current research project focusing on the development of gender and sexual identities among white and black middle-school children. A second project involves examining the organizational issues which arise when services for the poor are administered at the county level by both government agencies and non-profits."
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