Sandy Hofferth

Ph.D. 1976

What stands out most in my memory about the Department of Sociology at UNC is that when I began in 1967 there were no women on the faculty. I did not think of myself as a pioneer, but I was. Research methods was the domain in which I excelled; I enjoyed my classes with Hubert Blalock and Krishnan Namboodiri. I also very much benefitted from Jim Wiggins’ course on social learning theory.

After returning to UNC from a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Chile, I found more female students and, eventually, a woman faculty member. I began working on Dick Udry’s family planning research at the Carolina Population Center and eventually completed my dissertation with him in 1976.

In 1977 I found my first post-PhD research position in Washington DC, where, during the following decade and a half, I enjoyed collaborating with Isabelle Sawhill, Kris Moore, Wendy Baldwin, and other outstanding women at the Urban Institute and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development before moving to the University of Michigan and into academia.

I just retired from the University of Maryland, College Park, and, as emerita faculty, retain my connection with research activities there through the Maryland Population Research Center.

hofferth@umd.edu
Submitted December 2016