A Very Good Year for Sociology
It’s been a good year for the sociology department. Three of their graduates—Amy Best ’92, Jessica Greenebaum ’94, and Melinda Miceli ’92—received tenure this year. “It’s a strange version of having your children grow up,” says associate professor Judith Barker, who had a profound impact on each of the newly tenured professors when they were undergraduates. “The advantage of a school like Ithaca College for people who want to get a Ph.D. is that they are seriously mentored in a way that they wouldn’t be if they had to compete with graduate students.”
Amy Best is now an associate professor of sociology at George Mason University. She specializes in the study of youth, culture, and social inequalities. Says Barker, “I’m proud of her for taking such an integrated approach to race, class, and gender. There aren’t a lot of scholars doing what she’s doing.” Barker likes her approach so much that she will use Best’s book, Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars when she teaches Race, Class, and Gender this spring. Best is also the author of Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture. In 1998, Best married fellow IC grad Chris McCauley ’93. They have one daughter, Ella, and are expecting another child in October.
When reflecting on her days at Ithaca College, Best says, “I loved being a student at Ithaca College; the small classrooms and diverse curriculum, the genuine contact with and availability of professors, the culture of student activism on campus, the critical intellectual approaches adopted by professors in sociology and politics created a transformative learning experience for me. I certainly was not on an academic track when I started at Ithaca College, but I was when I left. I credit my professors and the student culture for that.”
Jessica Greenebaum, an associate professor of sociology at Central Connecticut State University, adds, “Ithaca College changed my life. I made excellent friends, and I ‘found myself’ politically and academically.” Greenebaum’s political commitment is evident in her work. Her current research is in the area of animals and society, work that Barker refers to as groundbreaking. Greenebaum recently published an article entitled “It’s a Dog’s Life: Elevating Status from Pet to ‘Fur Baby’ at Yappy Hour” in Society and Animals. “This may seem like an odd pairing,” Greenebaum says, “but I have managed to connect two academic and activist agendas—animal rights and feminism—that are crucial to my work and identity.”
As for Melinda Miceli, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Hartford, “[She] showed up knowing what she was doing,” Barker recalls. Miceli’s skills as a writer and researcher have led to some very novel work on young people and coming out. She is the author of Standing Out, Standing Together: The Social and Political Impact of Gay-Straight Alliances.
She has a great appreciation for her experience at Ithaca College, particularly for Barker’s classes in sexuality, gender, and theory, areas that Miceli specializes in. “Her phenomenal talent as a teacher and her complete dedication to her students inspired me to want to become a professor. The entire sociology department at IC was wonderful. I don’t think I could have received as good an education in sociology or training in critical thinking anywhere else.”
The three IC grads remain in touch. Miceli and Greenebaum currently live in the same area of Connecticut and regularly get together to walk their dogs and to discuss their work. As Greenebaum says, “It is wonderful that [we] all received tenure the same year. We continue to be friends and to support each other academically and personally.”
