Elizabeth Higginbotham, a native New Yorker, attended City College of New York. She continued her education in Sociology at Brandeis University, where she finished her doctorate in 1980.  She came to Delaware in 1998, and is currently Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Delaware where she held appointments in Black American Studies and Women and Gender Studies.  One of the founding members of the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis, she and her colleagues, Bonnie Thornton Dill and Lynn Weber, received the American Sociological Association Jessie Bernard Award and Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award for their work.  She is currently at work researching at Hagley Library in Wilmington.

Higginbotham is the author of Too Much to Ask: Black Women in the Era of Integration (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) and co-editor of Women and Work: Exploring Race, Ethnicity, and Class (Sage Publications, 1997; with Mary Romero). Along with Margaret L. Andersen, she produced the anthology Race in Society: The Changing Landscape in its fourth edition with Cengage Learning.  Higginbotham has authored many articles on the work experiences of African American women, women in higher education, and curriculum transformation.  In addition to her scholarship, Higginbotham has served in many capacities in professional and community organizations such as the American Council of Learned Societies, Delaware Historical Society, National Science Foundation, Delaware Humanities Forum, and Market Street Music.  She is currently working on a memoir.