Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick, PhD

 

 

 

 

Research Associate (Assistant Professor)

Sociology

 

 (773) 997-0762
mchass@uchicago.edu


PDF download:
CURRICULUM VITA

 

  

RELATED LINKS:

The University of Chicago

Committee on Education

Sociology

 

 

 

 

 



 

PERSONAL STATEMENT

How do the social networks of parents shape the opportunities of children in organizational settings? I currently study this question in schools, which are critical locations of both inequality and opportunity in modern society. I investigate how parents learn about their child’s everyday educational experiences through their interactions with other parents. My findings suggest that micro social systems arise in school settings where parents share information about their child’s everyday educational experiences with one another. Parent leaders emerge from these micro social systems and shape the alignment between school and home contexts. Also, parents situated in these networks collectively watch the everyday activities of teachers, shaping informal levels of accountability inside of schools. Social surveillance resources, however, were not equally distributed among parents across social class. I triangulate between several different methods to investigate these micro interactions over time, including qualitative analysis, social network analysis and survival analysis. My current research compares parents’ network dynamics in schools with those found in health care organizations, which are also important sites of social disparity for children. In particular, my colleagues and I are examining how parents situated in different organizational settings learn about their child’s autism treatments through their social networks. In future, I hope to develop social network interventions that help parents, clinicians and teachers gain access to critical everyday information to better manage children’s educational and health trajectories.


PRIMARY FIELDS OF INTEREST

Social Inequality, Organizations, Sociology of Education, Medical Sociology, Research Methods

 

PROFESSIONAL POSITION

2011                        Research Associate (Assistant Professor), Sociology, University of Chicago

2011                        National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship

2008-2011               Postdoctoral Scholar, Committee on Education, University of Chicago

 

EDUCATION

2005-2007                Ph.D. in Sociology

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Dissertation: Organizational Inequalities: The Social Production of Parent Surveillance Pressures in Urban School

Dissertation Committee: Richard Taub (Chair), Andrew Abbott, Elisabeth Clemens, Barbara Schneider, Mario Small

                               

2001-2005               M.A. in Sociology

Preliminary Honors

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

 

1994-1996               M.A. in Education

                                University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

                                Thesis: Parent Involvement in Literacy Education

 

1986-1988                B.A. English

University of California, Berkeley, CA

 

1984-1986                Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

 

PUBLISHED WORK

2011                  McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth. “Controlled Disruptions: How Ethnic Organizations Shape White Ethnic Symbolic Identities.”

Cultural Sociology. 6 (1).(currently available online on the Cultural Sociology website)

 

2009                 McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth and Barbara Schneider. “Parent Surveillance in Schools: A Question of Social Class.” American

Journal of Education. 115 (2).  Link to article

 

2007                McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth. “Professional Schools” in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.

 

 UNDER CONTRACT

Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick, Stephen Raudenbush and Lisa Rosen. The Ambitious Elementary School: Its Conception, Design

and Contribution to Educational Equity (Book Manuscript under contract with the University of Chicago Press)

 

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION

McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth Watching Teachers:  Parent Surveillance in the Schoolhouse (Book Draft).

McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth and Stephen Raudenbush “Reorganizing the Schoolhouse: A Lottery Study of NKO Charter

School” (Working paper).

McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth, “Social Networks among Parents and Autism Health Care Providers” (Working Paper)

GRANTS

2011           Co-Investigator. “Social Networks Among Parents and Autism Heath Care Providers.” NIH. $400,000. Stephen Raudenbush, Principal Investigator.

2009           Co-Investigator, “The University of Chicago Model for Urban Elementary Schooling.” William T. Grant Foundation Officer’s Discretionary Fund. $25,000. Stephen Raudenbush, Principal Investigator.

2009           Co-Investigator. “The Chicago Model for Urban Elementary Schooling.” Foundation for Child Development. $20,000. Stephen Raudenbush, Principal Investigator.

2006           Co-Investigator, The Invisible Hand: Parent Accountability Pressures in Urban Public Schools.” National Science Foundation

                    Sociology Dissertation Improvement Grant #0623138. $7,011. Barbara Schneider, Principal Investigator.

 

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

2007  Charles Bidwell ASA Travel Fund, University of Chicago Sociology Department

2006  Benjamin Bloom Dissertation Fellowship, University of Chicago

2006  Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Semi-finalist

2005  Charles Bidwell ASA Travel Fund, University of Chicago Sociology Department

2001  Center for School Improvement/University of Chicago Un-Endowed Fellowship

1994  Peace Corps Graduate Fellowship, University of New Mexico

 

ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS:

American Sociological Association, American Educational Research Association, Society for Research on Child Development 

 

CURRICULUM VITA 

Click here for PDF

 

The University of Chicago

 

Contact Information:

Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick

Committee on Education

University of Chicago

1155 E. 60th Street

2nd floor, 276

Phone: 773-997-0762

E-mail: mchass@uchicago.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Description: free web stats