DOCSLIB.ORG

On Challenging Authority: an Oral History Interview with Frances Fox Piven

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

ON CHALLENGING AUTHORITY: AN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH FRANCES FOX PIVEN Benjamin Shepard, Ph.D., City University of New York In 2002, Reflections ran an oral history/narrative interview with Richard A. Cloward. In addition to Cloward's voice, the interview included a few observations from Frances Fox Piven, Cloward's long time partner and collabora- tor In the years which followed, those involved with Reflections discussed the idea that Piven s voice needed a more prominent place in this journal. So the author reached out to Piven, one of the preeminent social welfare scholars of her generation. On August 16, 2007, Piven sat for her own oral history interview with Reflections. It has now been over thirty years since movements. We started our interview talking Cloward and Piven's essay, "Notes Toward a about her years with Mobilization for Youth, a Radical Social Work" was published in highly influential radical social work project 1975. Throughout the interview which follows, which spawned a generation of social welfare we revisit the themes addressed in this essay, scholars, including the dean ofthe University as well as the tensions between social of Califomia, School of Social work, Harry movements, direct action, and service Sprecht. His influential work Unfaithful provision. Many of these themes have made Angels: How Social Work Abandoned Its their way into the collaborations between Piven Mission, was a direct response to those years. and Cloward as well as into the writings by Piven herself in the decades which followed. Mobilization for Youth The result is perhaps the most compelling BS (Benjamin Shepard): Tell me about Francis Fox Piven bodies of social welfare scholarship ofthe last bow you got involved with Mobilization for Smith College Archives half century. Youth? So many people have written about While the expression "empowerment and romanticized the period. based practice" has become part of the au FFP (Frances Fox Piven): Well, it is a courant of social work practice, few have convoluted story. I had set out to do social and bridged the concept's praxis divide between economic planning in the third world. That was theoretical implications and practical the language that we used when I was in applications as Piven has. From her years with school. My husband at the time put a lot of the highly influential Mobilization for Youth pressure on me to shift to city planning. He project in the Lower East Side of Manhattan made a not unreasonable argument. What was through her contribution to the formation of he going to do while I tramping through the the National Welfare Rights Organization in swamps and deserts ofthe global south? What the 1960s, work with trade unions and other kind of marriage was that going to be? And I social movements, her work theorizing and didn't think I was making a monumental strategizing about the constraints on voting decision. After all, I thought I could do the rights so more people could access the same kind of work in American cities. So I franchise in the 1990s, and current research got a master's degree in plaiming. Frances Fox Piven, 2008 on the role of regular citizens in the process of But then I came to New York and I got a Photo by Caroline Shepanj social change, few social welfare scholars job working on the new zoning proposal for have done as much to articulate a route New York City, with an architectural firm towards power for poor people as Piven has. which had a contract with the city. I was Currently a professor of political science surprised by almost everything that was going and sociology at the Graduate School and on, and asked a lot of aggressive questions. University Center of the City University of My colleagues were annoyed but also patient. New York, Piven still continues to publish After all, I was young and I was pretty, so the books, teach, advise students, and support much more senior people were inclined to REFLECTIONS - SPRING 2008 On Challenging Authority indulge me, treat me like a mascot, or a toy. annoyed and discouraged, saying to myself, And I kept asking questions. It seemed to me maybe you've made a big mistake, you're in that two parallel things were going on. One the wrong field. was that well meaning planners, some of the So, while I was doing this, I got a letter top professionals in the country, were going from Columbia University inviting me to apply through the steps of what they considered for a fellowship to do my dissertation. I got rational decision making about land use in the the fellowship, and the dissertation I decided city, which meant collecting a lot of information to do was on the uses of research in planning on existing land uses. On the other hand, there decisions. I knew something about that. I went were the real estate interests which had big back and I asked all these accomplished stakes in zoning regulations, usually tacit but planners, "How did you use this study of still recognized^this was after all an parking provisions" or "this study on industrial architectural firm—and always in the design which I just conducted?" and they gave background. me pat answers about how useful this research So I guess I became a pain in the neck. I was in their zoning decisions. Later I watched was given a series of assignments which took the legislative process at the Board of me out of their hair. One was to do a survey Estimates as the real estate troops moved in. of all new industrial construction in the city; All in all, I decided I wasn't going to be a city another was to do a survey of parking space planner. provisions in new residential buildings. They I got my Ph.D. degree from the University assigned staff to help me, and 1 did those of Chicago where I'd completed all my course surveys. I was 21 years old. And I had a little work. The degree was in social science, not squadron of people fanning out over the city planning. But I didn't want to be an academic. to collect the data. The Buildings Department I had originally wanted to do economic presumably provided us with the base data development in the third world, and I still I identifying new industrial construction, for wanted to do something that was related to example. We drove to each of the sites on the social action. While I was finishing my degree Buildings Department cards. Sometimes we I was invited by the Mobilization for Youth team actually found new factories, but never did they to write parts of their proposal. And that's how match the building characteristics on our cards. I hooked up with them. I finally concluded that the reason was that When Mobilization got their big flinding the fees for building department applications (they had first had a planning grant), I got a were determined by square footage. So all grant from NIMH to do a study of how the these applications reporting small 2500 square unusual collaborative project between federal feet structures were actually big industrial and city agencies, and a host of voluntary establishments. When I told the head of the agencies on the Lower East Side, had come Department of City Planning that the huge map about. I had been there long enough to have a that they had on one of their floors with colored sense that each of these actors had different flags for different types of industrial ideas about what they were doing. And that it construction were all wrong, that a lot of them was a collaboration sealed by money. I also were not there at all and those that were there got tied up with the housing and community were much bigger, and that probably this was organizing programs, the direct action side of because the application data was a scam, he the project. simply said, "You're wrong. That's not so." So I did my study, and formulated my BS: You got the bug. conclusions. And I waited for someone to ask me for it. No one asked me. One day, I was FFP: Yea. so pissed that I took all the original data home and I put it in my bedroom closet. And I waited BS: Tell us about the community organizing for somebody to ask me for it. No one ever that you did. asked me for it. I was getting more and more 4 REFLECTIONS - SPRING 2008 On Challenging Authority FFP: Well, we were doing tenant proclaiming that these two blocks in Harlem organizing. And later, welfare rights organizing. were not the World's Fair but the "World's This was during the height ofthe civil rights Worst Fair," and there were big crowds. As it movement, and Mobilization for Youth did got dark I realized there were lots of people, something that I thought extraordinary. They and that 1 was the only white person there. rented a train to take people from the Lower People were angry and for the first time that East Side to the March on Washington. can I remember, I became wary. It was a But lots ofthe local organizing was about pretty harsh period. the rent strikes. I also knew about rent strikes I also remember a big rally with Malcolm elsewhere in the city, and what I knew was X, which occurred shortly after a white that a lot ofthe announced rent strikes weren't minister had led resistance to an urban renewal really happening.
Recommended publications
  • A S R F 2007 ASA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Frances Fox Piven Can

    A S R F 2007 ASA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Frances Fox Piven Can

    3285 ASR 1/7/08 10:32 AM Page 1 A Washington, DC 20005-4701 Washington, Suite 700 NW, Avenue York 1307 New (ISSN 0003-1224) American Sociological Review MERICAN S Sociology of Education OCIOLOGICAL A Journal of the American Sociological Association Edited by Barbara Schneider Michigan State University Quarterly, ISSN 0038-0407 R EVIEW SociologyofEducationpublishes papers advancing sociological knowledge about education in its various forms. Among the many issues considered in the journal are the nature and determinants of educational expansion; the relationship VOLUME 73 • NUMBER 1 • FEBRUARY 2008 between education and social mobility in contemporary OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION society; and the implications of diverse ways of organizing schools and schooling for teaching, learning, and human 2007 ASA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS development. The journal invites papers that draw on a wide range of methodological approaches that can contribute to a Frances Fox Piven F EBRUARY Can Power from Below Change the World? sociological understanding of these and other educational phenomena. Print subscriptions to ASA journals include online access to the current year’s issues MARGINALIZATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT at no additional charge through Ingenta,the leading provider of online publishing 2008 V Eileen M. Otis services to academic and professional publishers. Labor and Gender Organization in China Christopher A. Bail 2008 Subscription Rates Symbolic Boundaries in 21 European Countries ASA Members $40 • Student Members $25 • Institutions (print/online) $185, (online only) $170 (Add $20 for subscriptions outside the U.S. or Canada) RELIGION IN SOCIAL LIFE Individual subscribers are required to be ASA members. To join ASA and subscribe at discounted member rates, see www.asanet.org D.
  • Frances Fox Piven Transcript Author: Sophia Ebernardt Video: 19536

    Frances Fox Piven Transcript Author: Sophia Ebernardt Video: 19536

    Interviewee: Frances Fox Piven Transcript author: Sophia Ebernardt Video: 19536 [DH] [Inaudible] you met Howard as he went to BU, did you know him before? [FFP] No I had seen him speak at Columbia University, he came and spoke once,uh, during the - - or shortly after the building takeovers in 1968, so I had seen him speak and I knew who he was, but I didn't get to know him till I went to BU, and getting to know him was great, uh, I was very happy when I went to BU, because they seemed to be such lively people around. I had come from the Columbia University school [of] social work where there were not so many lively people, so, it was great, and I got to know him and I got to know Roz and all -- we would have supper together fairly often, and we were always planning things and doing things together. [00:01:00.957] Howard, Mary Levin and I are -- wrote an answer to Silber, this is shortly after I got there, it was published in, uh, BU News, I think, and, it was an answer to Silber's public statements that he wanted to make BU into and [aliet?] university, and we said "we don't want this to be an aliet university, uh, we want this to be a university in which ordinary people, uh, to which ordinary people come, come in large numbers, and, we don't necessarily want to glorify the academic traditions that are glorofied at places like Harvard or MIT, we wanna be critical and spirited," and, so, we three collaborated on that, uh, on that answer to Silber and that was really a few months after I got there and I think you can find that in the files, it must be there.
  • Reflections on Richard A. Cloward

    Reflections on Richard A. Cloward

    REFLECTIONS ON RICHARD A. CLOWARD Ken Grossinger Ken Grossinger, M.S. W., was Richard Cloward's student and a long time friend. He works at the AFL-CIO. I am not sure whether Richard Cloward and mentor. As Richard's student, I was stmck took me under his wing of his own volition, or instantly by his enormous intellect and if I was so persistent in my determination that scholarship. In the classroom, he spoke with he had no altemative. In 1980, after a four- dry humor, sharp insight and passion, and year hiatus from undergraduate school, I always with a thought provoking style. He entered the Columbia University School of possessed a sweeping knowledge of history Social Work (CUSSW). I had all but resigned and delivered a bravura performance for his myself to doing some combination of law and students. social work in order to make a living, or perhaps Before entering CUSSW, I worked at a I would eam a Ph.D. and teach. I assumed residential treatment home for delinquent youth. politics, my first love, would have to become One day, I was describing my experiences at an avocation. the home to Richard, talking to him about Then, as today, if one is not exposed to delinquency and arguing that society wrongfiilly political careers through family or friends, or defined deviant behavior as a psychological as part of a social movement, there is no dysfunction when it actually expressed obvious way to become famiUar with and leam something more. The next day he brought me about job opportunities in community organizing, Medicalization of Deviance, a book that philanthropy, labor, or other public interest work.
  • The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933

    The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933

    © Copyright 2015 Alexander James Morrow i Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: James N. Gregory, Chair Moon-Ho Jung Ileana Rodriguez Silva Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of History ii University of Washington Abstract Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor James Gregory Department of History This dissertation explores the economic and cultural (re)definition of labor and laborers. It traces the growing reliance upon contingent work as the foundation for industrial capitalism along the Pacific Coast; the shaping of urban space according to the demands of workers and capital; the formation of a working class subject through the discourse and social practices of both laborers and intellectuals; and workers’ struggles to improve their circumstances in the face of coercive and onerous conditions. Woven together, these strands reveal the consequences of a regional economy built upon contingent and migratory forms of labor. This workforce was hardly new to the American West, but the Pacific Coast’s reliance upon contingent labor reached its apogee after World War I, drawing hundreds of thousands of young men through far flung circuits of migration that stretched across the Pacific and into Latin America, transforming its largest urban centers and working class demography in the process. The presence of this substantial workforce (itinerant, unattached, and racially heterogeneous) was out step with the expectations of the modern American worker (stable, married, and white), and became the warrant for social investigators, employers, the state, and other workers to sharpen the lines of solidarity and exclusion.
  • "A Road to Peace and Freedom": the International Workers Order and The

    "A Road to Peace and Freedom": the International Workers Order and The

    “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” Robert M. Zecker “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930–1954 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2018 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education All rights reserved Published 2018 All reasonable attempts were made to locate the copyright holders for the materials published in this book. If you believe you may be one of them, please contact Temple University Press, and the publisher will include appropriate acknowledgment in subsequent editions of the book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zecker, Robert, 1962- author. Title: A road to peace and freedom : the International Workers Order and the struggle for economic justice and civil rights, 1930-1954 / Robert M. Zecker. Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2018. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035619| ISBN 9781439915158 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781439915165 (paper : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: International Workers Order. | International labor activities—History—20th century. | Labor unions—United States—History—20th century. | Working class—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Working class—United States—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Labor movement—United States—History—20th century. | Civil rights and socialism—United States—History—20th century. Classification: LCC HD6475.A2
  • Housing Policy in the Great Society, Part Two

    Housing Policy in the Great Society, Part Two

    Joint Center for Housing Studies Harvard University Into the Wild Blue Yonder: The Urban Crisis, Rocket Science, and the Pursuit of Transformation Housing Policy in the Great Society, Part Two Alexander von Hoffman March 2011 W11-3 The research for this working paper was conducted with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and the Fannie Mae Foundation. © by Alexander von Hoffman. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Off we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun Introduction Of the several large and important domestic housing and urban programs produced by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society administration, the best-known is Model Cities. Although it lasted only from 1966 to 1974, its advocates believed Model Cities had promised a better tomorrow for America’s cities and bitterly lamented its termination—blaming Richard Nixon’s policies, diversion of funds for the Vietnam war, and the nation’s lack of commitment to social progress. Yet the legislation that created Model Cities was ambitious, contradictory, and vague. As such, it vividly expressed the idealistic impulses, currents of thought, and reactions to events that converged, however incoherently, in national urban policy of the 1960s. At the center of the fervor for domestic policy was the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, who hungered for dramatic new programs that would transform the country the way New Deal policies had reshaped America in his youth.
  • BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO: Welcome to Our Plenary Session, Speaking to Publics: Limits and Possibilities

    BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO: Welcome to Our Plenary Session, Speaking to Publics: Limits and Possibilities

    BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO: Welcome to our plenary session, Speaking to Publics: Limits and Possibilities. This is a companion session plenary from the point of view of the program committee to the earlier plenary on Speaking to Powers. Although it's quite clear that these two communities are not mutually exclusive. My name is Bernice Pescosolido and I will simply introduce the speakers briefly. They are so notable that I think the time is much better spent hearing them than hearing about them. But first, it's my pleasure to introduce ASA's recipient of the first Annual Decade of Behavior Research Award. Among the questions that have been raised or that will be raised in this session today are; what publics can sociologist address? What ways are we addressing them? Why should we bother to address them? ASA works to ensure that sociologists are recognized for their scholarly efforts that have important policy implications. One such sociologist is David R. Williams whom ASA nominated to receive the inaugural Decade of Behavior Research Award. In 2004, the Decade of Behavior National Advisory Committee named David Williams as one of two recipients of this prestigious recognition for research in health. We are delighted that ASA's nominee has been honored by the Decade of Behavior. Let me give you a little background about this. The Decade of Behavior which in case you are not aware of it is 2000 to 2010 is a multidisciplinary initiative of about 60 endorsing organizations including the ASA that are committed to focusing the talents, energy, and creativity of the behavioral and social sciences on meeting many of society's most significant challenges.
  • Curriculum Vitae

    Curriculum Vitae

    Curriculum Vitae RUTH MICHELE MILKMAN Sociology Program voice: (212) 817-8771 CUNY Graduate Center fax: (212) 817-1536 365 Fifth Avenue mobile: (310) 871-3055 New York, NY 10016-4309 email: [email protected] EDUCATION 1975 B.A., with Honors, Brown University. Independent Major: "Women in Society" (second major: Comparative Literature) 1977 M.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley 1981 Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley. ACADEMIC POSITIONS 1981-88 Assistant to Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York 1986 Visiting Lecturer in American Labor History, Centre for the Study of Social History, University of Warwick (England) 1990 Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) 1991 Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University (Australia) 1988-94 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles 1993 Visiting Research Associate, Groupe d'Études sur La Division Sociale et Sexuelle du Travail, Institut de Recherche sur les Sociétés Contemporaines, CNRS, Paris 2006; 2010 Visiting Professor, Labor Studies Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 1994-2009 Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles 2009-2015 Professor of Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center 2014 Visiting Scholar, University of Amsterdam and University of Latvia 2015- Distinguished Professor of Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
  • Merton, Robert K.: Social Structure and Anomie

    Merton, Robert K.: Social Structure and Anomie

    Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory Merton, Robert K.: Social Structure and Anomie Contributors: Steven F. Messner Editors: Francis T. Cullen & Pamela Wilcox Book Title: Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory Chapter Title: "Merton, Robert K.: Social Structure and Anomie" Pub. Date: 2010 Access Date: September 12, 2014 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Print ISBN: 9781412959186 Online ISBN: 9781412959193 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959193.n171 Print pages: 613-620 ©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. SAGE ©2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959193.n171 Robert K. Merton was one of the most distinguished and influential sociologists of the 20th century. Throughout his career, he was a leading figure in the sociology of science, and he made substantial contributions to general sociological theory by developing the paradigm of structural analysis. In the field of criminology, Merton is best known for advancing and popularizing the anomie perspective on crime. This perspective highlights the ways in which the normal features of the social organization of American society ironically contribute to high levels of crime and other forms of deviant behavior by producing anomie, a breakdown in the culture. This anomie or cultural breakdown is characterized by a very strong emphasis on the importance of success goals (especially monetary success) and a comparatively weak emphasis on the importance of using the normatively approved means to achieve these goals.
  • The Anti-Poverty Soldier Page 1 the Nation, and Billmoyers.Com

    The Anti-Poverty Soldier Page 1 the Nation, and Billmoyers.Com

    THE ANTI-POVERTY SOLDIER By Clarence Hightower, Ph.D. The fight against poverty requires more It chronicles the journey of both his own life and that of than resources and goodwill: another young man who was born the same year, grew It necessitates a fundamental understanding of up in the same impoverished Baltimore neighborhood the causes of poverty and sound policies under remarkably similar conditions, and shares the July 13, 2017 | Vol. 4 No. 28 same name. Today, “the other” Wes Moore is serving a life sentence in a Maryland maximum security prison, Today, the lines are blurring between the middle class, while the author of the book went on to become a the working poor, and those unable to find work. The Rhodes Scholar, a decorated combat veteran, and a housing crisis, the lengthy recession, wage stagnation White House Fellow. and a “recovery” in which the well-paying jobs that evaporated have been replaced by low-wage, contingent The author Wes Moore notes that “The chilling truth is jobs, have led to more Americans slipping down the that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that rungs of the economic ladder. my story could have been his.” Through several twists – Randi Weingarten of fate, and as Moore admits, to some degree luck, he was able to escape the realities that helped land his We can choose either to perpetuate “blame the victim” namesake behind bars. Yet again, Moore realizes that anti-poor policies of the past or to fight for the massive his fate is an exception rather than the rule.
  • No Shortcuts: the Case for Organizing

    No Shortcuts: the Case for Organizing

    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing Jane Frances McAlevey Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1043 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] i No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing by Jane F. McAlevey A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii COPYRIGHT © 2015 JANE F. MCALEVEY All Rights Reserved iii APPROVAL PAGE, NO SHORTCUTS: THE CASE FOR ORGANIZING This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology to satisfy the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Approved by: Date Chair of Examining Committee ______________________ _________________________________________ Frances Fox Piven, Professor Date Executive Officer, Sociology ______________________ __________________________________________ Philip Kasinitz, Professor Supervisory Committee Members James Jasper, Professor William Kornblum, Professor Dan Clawson, Professor, UMASS Amherst THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv ABSTRACT Abstract No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing By Jane McAlevey Advisor: Frances Fox Piven This dissertation will explore how ordinary workers in the new economy create and sustain power from below. In workplace and community movements, individuals acting collectively have been shown to win victories using a variety of different approaches.
  • Francis T. Cullen 31St ACJS President 1993-1994

    Francis T. Cullen 31St ACJS President 1993-1994

    The History of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Francis T. Cullen 31st ACJS President 1993-1994 Francis T. Cullen, known to his friends and colleagues as “Frank,” was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 2, 1951 and has had the burden and joy of being a life-long Red Sox fan. He graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Bridgewater State College in 1972. He then briefly attended the University of Rhode Island before moving on to Columbia University. There, he entered the Sociology and Education program, where his older brother John was a student. They both earned their Ph.D.’s, with Frank’s awarded in 1979. In his first year at Columbia, Cullen enrolled in a social work course on “Deviance and the Social Structure” taught by Richard Cloward (Robert Merton also was one of his professors). After earning an A+ on his course paper, he built up the courage to ask Cloward to direct him in an independent study focusing on theories of crime and deviance. A few weeks into this tutorial, Cloward inquired whether Cullen would like to write a theoretical dissertation under his guidance that would expand ideas that had appeared in Cloward’s classic Delinquency and Opportunity (coauthored with Lloyd Ohlin). Although taken by surprise, Cullen immediately agreed—a decision that led to his becoming a criminologist. His dissertation was eventually published as Rethinking Crime and Deviance Theory: The Emergence of a Structuring Tradition (1984). Cullen obtained his first teaching position in 1976 in the sociology department at Western Illinois, before moving in 1982 to the criminal justice program at the University of Cincinnati.