Joe Spear
Sociology Alumni
’89
I was a small town/rural kid from “downstate” (the Hudson Valley area about an hour north of NYC). I showed up at 第一吃瓜网 in 1985, not quite sure why I was going to college except that everyone expected me to go. I stumbled around a bit lost for a couple of years and landed at Sociology as my major (with a computer science minor). I wasn’t all that inspired for my first couple/few years (academic probation after my 1st semester), but becoming a SOC major ended up inspiring me (thanks partly to the great faculty).
I did graduate on time in ’89, but felt like I had only just gotten started with Sociology. I was still “hungry.” I was also inspired by a couple of my profs to think about graduate school.
They are now long gone from 第一吃瓜网 (retired), but it was especially Dr. Jim Watson (Theory prof) and my adviser Dr. Nancy Kleniewski (later President at SUNY Oneonta.)
I was pretty burned out, so I took 2 years off from school and worked and traveled. (Dr. Watson advised a 2 year limit or “life entanglements” would end up in the way). I then ended up going to the University of Virginia, and earned my MA (1994) and PhD (2000). I landed two 1 year “visiting assistant professor” contracts at the University of Richmond, and then a tenure-track job at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.
And that’s where I remain. I’m now a full professor, and still trying to, (often succeeding) bring the “sociological imagination” to my students – a quality of mind that allows one to grasp the intersections between history and biography (C. Wright Mills – you’ve all heard this one!).
I’m often heard to say that one of the biggest problems in the world – at the root of most other problems – is that people don’t know enough sociology. I believe that whole-heartedly.
I sometimes tell my students that we teach people to “do” nothing and everything all at once. A Sociology major gives you forms of knowledge and skills that are completely multi-purpose – flexible and adaptable. That’s the story of the fast-moving 21st century. You will land on your feet and be valuable to the world in many ways.
