ABSTRACT
As is the case in the lives of people from all walks of life, my winding trajectory into academia was strongly influenced by chance and circumstance, mixing a unique combination of religious denomination, social class, educational setting, academic discipline, and professional
context. These experiences have shaped my scholarly contributions, which focus on identity formation, educationwork transitions, and the transition to adulthood. As a sociologist, I have endeavored to understand societal contexts not as variables but in terms of the “big picture” that sets the parameters for people’s lives, both in terms of opportunities (doors open to people of a given identity) and obstacles (doors closed because of another imputed identity). My commitment to understanding the impact of the larger societal context on peoples’ potentials has necessarily involved challenging orthodoxies and taking political stances that are not always popular, but which I have felt morally obligated to do, often because of personal experiences and research-based insights.
