Margarethe Kusenbach
Margarethe Kusenbach
Associate Professor
Contact
Office: CPR 221
Phone: 813/974-2595
Email:
Links
Personal Bio
When you move into a new place, you will for a while struggle to find the light switches in the dark. Stumbling over furniture, you are forced to pay special attention to the still unfamiliar environment. Something similar happens when you move to a new city, just on a larger scale. You will need to figure out the best way to get to work, find places where you can get your hair cut and your car fixed, and, most importantly, you will need to connect with new people in order to “replace” your less available previous acquaintances, colleagues, and friends. Moving to a new country where people speak a foreign language and eat strange foods only enhances the degree of place-awareness and self-consciousness you feel at times. In all these cases, the challenge is to create private niches and familiar communities that help you cope with, and therefore enjoy, the abundance of new people and places out there. While this can certainly be done over time, you can’t help but permanently lose at least some of the certainty and taken-for-grantedness that characterized your very first home, communities, and relationships. And once you have moved on, going back to what you have left behind is in many ways impossible. Alfred Schutz, an Austrian social theorist who immigrated to the United States in 1939 and whose work I find very inspiring, elaborated on the challenges and opportunities of such experiences in his pair of essays “The Stranger” (1942) and “The Homecomer” (1945).
I have always enjoyed the richness of experience that traveling and living in foreign countries can provide. As a teenager and young adult living in Germany, I took any opportunity to get away and saw many European countries. In my early twenties, I spent six months traveling and living in Japan. I then lived in Switzerland for several years while continuing my training in sociology and philosophy. At 26, I moved to Los Angeles in order to attend the sociology Ph.D. program at UCLA, bringing nothing but a few books and clothes with me. And just a few years ago, I moved across the US to Tampa—this time taking along my own family and quite a few more belongings.
What stood behind my various migrations, besides a gusto for adventure, was an increasing fascination with ethnographic research. Inspired by my own adjustments to living in Los Angeles and the US, I developed an avid interest in urban and community sociology, alongside a curiosity toward the roles of embodiment and emotions in everyday life. Over time, I realized how deeply people’s interactions and relationships are rooted in their constantly shifting social and physical environments. For instance, the proper ways of greeting someone vary drastically depending on whether you are at home, in your neighborhood, or in a truly public place. In recent years, I have personally experienced how one’s social and physical world tends to (literally) shrink as a parent. Finally, natural disasters such as hurricanes (part of the experience of living in Florida) can permanently disrupt people’s personal relationships and identities. In other words, in my research I strive to explore the interplay of daily social life, institutions, and environments. Within this context, issues of community and sustainability lie at the heart of my sociological curiosity.
At USF, I predominantly teach courses in the areas of urban and community sociology, social psychology, social problems, and qualitative research methods. In most courses, I provide original research opportunities for students and utilize individualized, as opposed to standardized, assignments. A number of my courses can be applied toward earning an undergraduate certificate in Urban Studies, a graduate certificate in Community Development, and a M.A. degree in Urban Planning. I am a faculty member of the USF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program on social aspects of hurricanes (2007-2009). I work with many students, including a number from other departments, and I frequently collaborate with colleagues in other fields such as anthropology, geography, social work, criminology, and history.
Being a teacher and researcher in the field of sociology brings about a variety of tasks and social relationships. What I enjoy most about my work are the new social worlds and perspectives that interacting with research informants, students, and colleagues brings into my life. This is a good travel substitute for someone who tries to balance a continued longing for adventure with an increasing need and desire to be home.
Education
Ph.D.,University of California - Los Angeles, 2003
Current Courses