Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick

Postdoctoral Scholar (773) 256-6195 mchass@uchicago.edu PDF download: CURRICULUM VITA TEACHING: Spring 2008 Democracy and Social Science  RELATED LINKS: The University of Chicago Committee on Education Sociology

PERSONAL STATEMENT Postdoctoral Scholar, Committee on Education at The University of Chicago 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. My research findings suggest that informal social surveillance systems emerge from interactions among parents and teachers, where parents collectively watch the everyday activities of teachers, shaping informal levels of accountability inside of schools. I triangulate between several different methods to investigate these micro surveillance interactions over time, including qualitative analysis, social network analysis, survival analysis and experimental methods. In future research, I will compare social surveillance dynamics in schools with those found in health care organizations, which are also important sites of social disparity for children. PRIMARY FIELDS OF INTEREST Social Inequality, Organizations, Sociology of Education, Research Methods EDUCATION 2005-2007 Ph.D. in Sociology The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Dissertation Committee: Richard Taub (Chair), Andrew Abbott, Elisabeth Clemens, Barbara Schneider, Mario Small Dissertation: Organizational Inequalities: The Social Production of Parent Surveillance Pressures in Urban Schools 2001-2005 M.A. in Sociology 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 SELECTED HONORS AND GRANTS 2009 WT Grant Foundation Officer’s Discretionary Grant, Co-Investigator 2008 Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Chicago 2007 Charles Bidwell ASA Travel Fund ($500), University of Chicago Sociology Department 2006-2007 Benjamin Bloom Dissertation Fellowship ($15,000), University of Chicago 2006 Dissertation Improvement Grant ($7,000), National Science Foundation (with Barbara Schneider) 2006 Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Semi-finalist 2005 Charles Bidwell ASA Travel Fund ($500), University of Chicago Sociology Department 2001-2003 Center for School Improvement/University of Chicago Un-Endowed Fellowship 1994-1996 Peace Corps Fellowship, University of New Mexico PUBLISHED ARTICLES Forthcoming McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth. “Controlled Disruptions: How Ethnic Organizations Shape White Ethnic Symbolic Identities.” Cultural Sociology. Click here for PDF 2009 McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth and Barbara Schneider. “Parent Surveillance in Schools: A Question of Social Class.” American Journal of Education. Click here for PDF Featured in Education Week "The Dark Side of Parental Involvement" in Blog By Debra Viadero on March 24, 2009 "In education, encouraging parents to be involved in their children's schooling is like motherhood and apple pie. Everyone likes it, and who would argue against it? But a study published last month in the American Journal of Education suggests that parent involvement can have a downside, too…According to the study, the middle-class parents essentially "surveilled" the teachers in the school…The teachers chafed under the scrutiny, but the constant presence of the middle-class parents did persuade educators to open up the proverbial closed-doors of their classrooms." --Debra Viadero, Education Week 2007 McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth. “Professional Schools” in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Click here for PDF MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION · McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth and Stephen Raudenbush (Editors). The University of Chicago Model for Urban Elementary Schooling Supported by William T. Grant Foundation Officer’s Discretionary Grant (Working Book Draft) · McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth “Classroom Surveillance: How Parents Watch Teachers (Working Book Draft). · McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth “Parent Surveillance and Teacher Reputations in Urban Public Schools.” (Working Paper). · McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth “Surveillance Supports: How Ego Networks of Parents from Different Social Classes Vary.” (Working Paper). · McGhee Hassrick, Elizabeth “Parent Surveillance Homophily: Reciprocal Dyads among White and Minority Parents.” (Working Paper). ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS: American Sociological Association, American Educational Research Association  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, Rm. 260 Phone: 773-256-6195 Fax: 773-256-6177 E-mail: mchass@uchicago.edu