PhD in Sociology

Marisa Allison, 2016

Marisa Allison

"My research interests range from investigating the corporatization of higher education, the growth of non-tenure track faculty, women’s work in colleges and universities, and rising student debt. Beyond these specific interests, I have an ever-growing excitement for doing public sociology and am passionate about discovering ways to better integrate the needs of the public, including grassroots movements, with the work happening in the academy.

During my time at Mason, my passion for public sociology has flourished because of the mentorship and support of faculty and fellow students. Early in my doctoral program I began volunteering with the New Faculty Majority, a grassroots non-profit that conducts research and advocates on behalf of non-tenure track faculty who now make up 75% of the total professoriate, yet often are paid less than a living wage, with little to no benefits or job security. Working with two of my grad school colleagues, we conducted our own public sociology project surveying contingent faculty at GMU and publicly releasing a report of our findings. In response to our report, contingent faculty at Mason organized forming the Mason Coalition of Academic Labor and administrators at GMU launched their own investigation into the working conditions of these faculty by commissioning a task force to better understand the unique issues they face.

Since then I have had the incredible opportunity continue this work by serving as the Director of Research for the New Faculty Majority Foundation, planning and implementing a research vision for the organization as it has grown. During my time with NFMF I’ve had the opportunity to work with researchers at the Center for the Study of Academic Labor at Colorado State University, adjunct faculty from multiple colleges and universities across the U.S. helping them to conduct research on their own campuses, and most recently with staffers in the Democratic House Committee on Education and the Workforce, sitting on two Congressional Briefing Panels in 2014 and 2015 speaking about the need for better national data on the working conditions of contingent faculty.

Whether I end up in academia or a non-profit, once I complete my degree, I hope to expand the sociology I’ve been doing by working with students, scholars, and the communities they work with to make stronger, more ethical connections between the academy and the public and to continue the progressive work of public sociology." 

Allison received the received 2015 American Sociology Association Robert Dentler Award for Outstanding Student Achievement in Public Sociology and the 2011 Rising Scholar Award given by Mason's Department of Women and Gender Studies.