Madonna Harrington Meyer, professor of sociology in the Maxwell School and Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, was recently named a University Professor by Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly.
The prestigious distinction—a four-year, renewable appointment—is granted to faculty who excel in their fields and who have made extraordinary scholarly contributions as judged by their peers nationally and internationally.
Madonna Harrington Meyer
“Professor Harrington Meyer’s work is focused on some of the most persistent, difficult and relevant issues facing our society. Her research and teaching challenge us to think through and find solutions that better our communities,” says Wheatly. “She is highly deserving of this distinction. Her approach to scholarship, research and teaching is the kind of academic excellence that defines ϲ and attracts students and faculty alike.”
Harrington Meyer, a faculty affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute and a senior research affiliate in the Center for Policy Research, is a nationally recognized expert in social policy, aging, gender and life course.
“Professor Harrington Meyer’s scholarship has been at the forefront of issues related to gender and care work, insurance access for women, poverty and inequality among elderly populations, aging and social policy, and more recently on grandparents as critical support structures in fragmented and poor families,” says Maxwell School Dean and Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy David Van Slyke. “She is also known on campus as an excellent and popular teacher who is rigorous and engaging, fair, supportive of students, clear and passionate about teaching. I’m delighted that she has been recognized for her significant contributions to the University and the exciting work she’s engaged in.”
“I am deeply honored by and grateful for this award,” Harrington Meyer says. “It enables me to remain focused on research that explores how public policy shapes people’s everyday lives—and how that varies by key sociodemographic variables such as gender, race, class, disability or immigration. These issues are central to many of us in the Maxwell School specifically and ϲ more broadly.”
Harrington Meyer is author of “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs” (2014), which explores the stresses and benefits that come from caring for grandchildren by grandmothers who are often fully employed themselves. The book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the complex family dynamics of the 21st century.
That book, along with her co-authored book, “Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age” (2007), won the Gerontological Society of America’s Kalish Book Award.
She is co-editor, with Ynesse Abdul-Malak, of “Grandparenting in the United States” (2016) and co-editor with Elizabeth Daniele of “Gerontology: Changes, Challenges and Solutions” (2016). Harrington Meyer is the editor of “Care Work: Gender, Labor and the Welfare State” (2000) and co-editor of the Routledge Society and Aging Series with her colleague Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology in the Maxwell School.
In 2016, Harrington Meyer was named recipient of the Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course.
She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a distinction that represents the society’s highest class of membership.
Harrington Meyer received a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1987 and a Ph.D. in sociology from Florida State University in 1991.
