David J. Maume

Ph.D. 1983

I arrived in Chapel Hill in fall 1978, got my master’s degree in 1981 and Ph.D. degree in summer 1983. I’ve often said those were some of the best five years of my life. Because our first daughter was born in Chapel Hill, we lived in Odum Village and everything was within walking distance. I went to as many basketball games in Carmichael as I could. I took challenging seminars with David Heise (stats & methods), E.K. Wilson & Henry Landsberger (theory), Peter Marsden (stratification & advanced regression), Ron Rindfuss (demography) and Dick Simpson (work and organizations). I also learned a lot as a TA for undergrad stats, first with John Shelton Reed and then Dick Cramer. I was extremely fortunate to share good times and debate sociology with my office mates, Dave Smith and Roger Nemeth, and other grad students in the program at the time including Karen Campbell, Cathy Zimmer, and Mike Kennedy.

But, my career path as a sociologist was set when Rachel Rosenfeld joined the department in 1981. I was her first RA and I learned how to be a sociologist and how to navigate academia. Rachel chaired my dissertation committee, and we consistently kept in touch after I left Chapel Hill. Even now, there is not a week that goes by when I don’t think of Rachel and sometimes ask myself what would Rachel do if she were in my situation. Rachel was an extraordinary person/scholar, and it’s no exaggeration to say that I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had if I hadn’t known Rachel Rosenfeld.

After finishing my dissertation I moved to Chicago to teach at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Three years later I moved to the University of Cincinnati, where I have remained for 31 years.

Along the way I have had some awards (the SSS Jocher-Beard award for scholarship on gender in society) and honors (President of the SSS in 2015), and I have to give thanks to the department for the lessons I learned that allowed me to have the satisfying career that I have had.
maumedj@ucmail.uc.edu
Submitted January 2017