Maralee Mayberry
Professor
Contact
Office: CPR 0209
Phone: 813/974-2241
Email:
Links
Personal Bio
Rocks and Sociology. What could they possibly have to do with each other? For seven years I lived in Eugene, Oregon working on my doctoral degree. I found C. Wright Mills' notion of the sociological imagination fascinating and it soon informed my own personal observations of how supposedly "private troubles" are, in fact, rooted in the dynamics of social structures. Like many graduate students, my sociological musings were vast and unruly. I became jittery whenever my thoughts entertained that terrifying question, "what will be my dissertation topic?" The majority of my research had been in the area of the sociology of education, yet it seemed everything had already been studied. What could I possibly explore that would capture my passion for sociology and allow me to enter an academic profession?
My dissertation topic literally fell out of the sky in the form of a rock that cracked the windshield of my car. While waiting to have my windshield repaired by the "liquid glass" expert, who was also president of the Lane County Home School Association, I asked an innocent question about the quality of public schools in the area. My expert engaged me in a life-altering conversation about the growing numbers of parents, like himself, who had made the decision to circumvent public institutions of education by teaching their children at home. Mesmerized, I knew I had found my research question: why are increasing numbers of parents choosing to teach their children at home? At that moment, my instincts told me that my training in the sociology of education, social movement theory, and political sociology would coalesce in my exploration of this question.
I began a project that seemed an obvious "enactment" of the sociological imagination, namely to understand the intersections between the social institution of schooling and the everyday lived experience of home education parents. The project I embarked on allowed me to employ the insights of major sociological theorists (Marx, Weber, Habermas), macro and micro theoretical perspectives (legitimization crises of the state, life-style politics, identity politics), and several methodological tools (surveys, in-depth interviews, document analysis). At first, I saw this as an exploratory project. Research on home schooling was virtually non-existent, so how hard could this be, I wondered? Over the next two years, I made inroads into a plethora of home school communities and became convinced that I would find no simple answer to my question. The rationales parents articulated for their decision to educate their children at home were varied and complicated like the increasingly post-industrial, highly technologized society within which these parents live. The "ah-ha" sociological moment finally arrived, revealing the intersections of the personal and social.
What began as a fairly straightforward dissertation project grew in its complexity. My research interests expanded, and during my first 5 years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), I explored questions about the role of women in the home school movement, the political and religious uniqueness of home school families, the relationship between post-industrial social institutions and the everyday resistances of home school parents to such institutions, and the policy implications of a rapidly growing home education movement.
While the home education movement fascinated (and continues to fascinate) me, a new research interest captured my sociological imagination, one initially related to the actual study of rocks. Thanks to a wonderful Director of Women's Studies at UNLV, I was able to develop and team-teach an experimental course, "Earth Systems: A Feminist Approach," that was tri-listed among women's studies, geoscience, and sociology. The course provided me the starting point for my current transdisciplinary research interest in feminist science studies, namely to transform insights from the feminist/social/cultural studies on and about the sciences into innovative practical applications in the sciences. My research adventures across natures and cultures range from applications of feminist pedagogy and theory in science curriculum to highlighting the invisible factors that shape the interconnections between nature and culture, or in Evelyn Fox Keller's words, how nature and culture "interact in the production of scientific [and social] knowledge" (1987, 90).
Feminist science studies has convinced me of the transdisciplinary nature of knowledge and the necessity of actively establishing relationships between the social and natural sciences through collaborative intellectual projects. My foray into this "undisciplined" field continues to fuel what I consider to be a primary component of sociological investigation -- that is, not merely to describe the world but to transform it. Feminist science studies challenges institutional power and creates possibilities to transgress the inequities inherent in how institutional power is enacted, not only within the confines of the university, but as a force in larger socio-political structures.
The above is a very small sketch of events that have shaped the research and teaching interests that I bring to USF. I like to think of my work as "engaged scholarship." My interests allow me to forge connections with the College of Education, Women's Studies, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, and Interdisciplinary Social Science. They allow me to participate in community and national curriculum reform projects, speak to school board associations and local home school organizations, consult with faculty from other universities on building transdisciplinary programs, and most importantly, bring to my students an appreciation of the power of a sociological imagination.
Education
Ph.D.,University of Oregon, 1988
Current Courses