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Zelda F. Gamson

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Zelda Gamson
Born (1936-03-12) March 12, 1936 (age 88)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Alma materHarvard University
University of Michigan
Scientific career
FieldsHigher education
InstitutionsUniversity of Massachusetts Boston
University of Michigan

Zelda Gamson (born March 12, 1936) is an American sociologist, writer and activist. Her scholarly work has primarily focused on the sociology of higher education, in particular innovation and change.

Personal life and education

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Born Zelda Finkelstein in Philadelphia, Gamson is the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. She attended public schools in Philadelphia, and studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Antioch College before completing her undergraduate degree at University of Michigan in 1958. She received a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 1959 and a PhD from the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University in 1965. She was married to the late William A. Gamson. They had two children, Jennifer (born 1960) and Joshua (born 1962).[1]

Career and scholarship

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Gamson's doctoral dissertation about Monteith College, an experimental college for non-elite students at Wayne State University, brought her into the orbit of David Riesman, with whom she later co-authored an in-depth study of mass higher education.[2] Her early research focused on student organizations,[3] student-faculty relations,[4] higher education within Israeli kibbutzim,[5] minority experiences on college campuses,[6] and mass education.[2] She later became involved in national efforts for higher education reform, with a particular focus on undergraduate educational practice. Her work has centered on the ways higher education is and can be organized for civic engagement and the common good,[7] as well as on stratification and inequality in higher education.[8] Her most notable work in this arena includes Liberating Education (1984),[9] "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Higher Education" (1987, with Arthur Chickering),[10] Applying the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1991, with Arthur Chickering),[11] and Revitalizing General Education in a Time of Scarcity (1997, with Sandra Kanter and Howard London).[12] The "Seven Principles" continue to be widely circulated in settings such as college teaching and learning centers,[13] as well as in the development of pedagogy [14] and educational technology.[15] Gamson was an invited member of the Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in Undergraduate Education sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute of Education.[16] Foundations that have supported her research include the Carnegie Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Ford Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.[17] She has also written for non-academic publications such as Jewish Currents.[18] Her latest publication is the memoir Don't Play Like a Girl: A Midcentury Woman Leaps Into Life.

Gamson spent more than seventeen years at the University of Michigan, with appointments at the Institute for Social Research, the Center for the Study of Higher Education, and the Residential College. In 1988, she moved to the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where she founded the Higher Education Doctoral Program and was the Founding Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE). She retired from the University of Massachusetts in 1999, and currently lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

References

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  1. ^ Magazine, Contexts. "Keeping it in the Family - Contexts". Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  2. ^ a b Riesman, David; Gamson, Zelda (1970). Academic values and mass education. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0070527903. OCLC 2163890.
  3. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. (1974). "Group Process and Organizational Environment: Student Organizations in the University". Journal of Voluntary Action Research. 3 (3–4): 47–58. doi:10.1177/089976407400300305. hdl:2027.42/68768. ISSN 0094-0607. S2CID 143762591.
  4. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. (1972), "Performance and Personalism in Student-Faculty Relations", College and Student, Elsevier, pp. 237–260, doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-016785-5.50025-0, ISBN 9780080167855
  5. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. "College and the Kibbutz." Change 5, no. 10 (1973): 22-24. JSTOR 40161918.
  6. ^ Gamson, Zelda F.; Peterson, Marvin W.; Blackburn, Robert T. (1980). "Stages in the Response of White Colleges and Universities to Black Students". The Journal of Higher Education. 51 (3): 255. doi:10.2307/1981008. ISSN 0022-1546. JSTOR 1981008.
  7. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. (1997). "Higher Education & Rebuilding Civic Life". Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 29 (1): 10–13. doi:10.1080/00091389709603108. ISSN 0009-1383.
  8. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. (1997). "The Stratification of the Academy". Social Text (51): 67–73. doi:10.2307/466647. ISSN 0164-2472. JSTOR 466647.
  9. ^ Gamson, Zelda F. (1984). Liberating education. Jossey-Bass. OCLC 557616710.
  10. ^ Chickering, A.W, and Gamson, Z.F. "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." AAHE Bulletin, 1987, 39(7), 3-7.
  11. ^ Chickering, Arthur W., 1927- Gamson, Zelda F. (1991). Applying the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. Jossey-Bass Inc. OCLC 624966195.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Kanter, Sandra L.; Gamson, Zelda; London, Howard (1997). Revitalizing general education in a time of scarcity : a navigational chart for administrators and faculty. Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0205262570. OCLC 832921644.
  13. ^ "Chickering and Gamson – The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning". Retrieved 2019-07-27.
  14. ^ Myers, Karen A.; Pousson, J. Mark (2018). "Ignatian Pedagogy as a Frame for Universal Design in College: Meeting Learning Needs of Generation Z". Education Sciences. 8 (4): 193. doi:10.3390/educsci8040193.
  15. ^ Urban, David J. (2015). "Using Technology to Implement the "Seven Principles for Good Practice" in Marketing Education–Abstract". In Spotts, Harlan E.; Meadow, H. Lee (eds.). Proceedings of the 2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer International Publishing. pp. 179–180. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11885-7_41. ISBN 9783319118857.
  16. ^ Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education. Final Report of the Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education. Superintendent of Documents, U. October 1984.
  17. ^ "New College. Program Review. State University System of Florida" (PDF).
  18. ^ "Zelda Gamson, Author at Jewish Currents". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
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