Ethel L. Mickey

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Massachusetts Amherst, ADVANCE Program
Ethel L. Mickey

Ethel L. Mickey

Ethel L. Mickey is a sociologist of gender, race, and class; work and organizations; and science and technology. Mickey’s scholarship consists of a series of mixed methods projects linked by a single thread: understanding the persistent marginalization of women and BIPOC scientists and technologists in the knowledge economy, even as they work for innovative organizations that invest in diversity initiatives. Her primary project addresses the power monopoly of Big Tech by investigating the role of elite networks in the persistence of labor market inequalities, and she is currently writing a book on this topic.

Her other projects investigate institutional mechanisms of intersectional inequality in academic science. Mickey received an award from the National Science Foundation through the ADVANCE Resource Coordination (ARC) Network Program to serve as one of the program’s inaugural Virtual Visiting Scholars, through which she conducted a meta-analysis of the research on gender, race, and faculty networks. In collaboration with members of the UMass ADVANCE team, Mickey studies the shifting nature of faculty work in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public sociology is central to her work on faculty equity and inclusion, and she has coauthored columns in Inside Higher Ed, and has created evidence-based outreach materials and workshops presented to colleges and universities nationwide. 

Her work has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and Sociologists for Women in Society, and appears in Gender & SocietyResearch in the Sociology of Work, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and Feminist Formations.

Mickey received her BA in Sociology and English from Vanderbilt University, and her PhD in Sociology from Northeastern University with a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Contact