- sandym@uwm.edu
- 414-229-1173
- Enderis Hall 617
Marie Sandy, PhD
- Department Chair, Administrative Leadership
- Wm. Collins Kohler Chair, Institute for Systems Change and Peacebuilding
I am concerned with issues that face urban, low-income communities and the social movements and practices that seek to change those realities. My scholarship focuses on the social context of education and philosophy of education, the social determinants of health and the role education plays in alleviating health disparities, with emphasis on race, gender, and class inequalities, and grassroots paths to social transformation. My current research strands involve 1) community-based health workers movement* (promotoras de salud) and other peer mentor learning groups for health and well-being in low-income communities; 2) designing and theorizing about qualitative community-based participatory action research and evaluation strategies; 3) overcoming family homelessness and supporting homeless families in school and community settings; and 4) public engaged scholarship through community-based research, community-academic partnerships, and service-learning in on-line and face-to-face contexts.
All aspects of my work integrate philosophical theory -- particularly feminist, liberal arts, and continental theory -- with public engaged scholarship to improve policy-making and promote change. I often use service-learning, community-based participatory action research, and community engaged pedagogies in my classroom and in my work with community organizations to co-design research projects. As a researcher, I work to ensure that the people 鈥渟tudied鈥� in my research can draw on my work to better address the problems or situations they are experiencing, and that the research process itself is beneficial or at least a positive experience for them.
I worked previously as a community organizer and deputy director of a national non-profit organization, Wider Opportunities for Women, where I promoted the leadership of women in nontraditional jobs while advocating for national and local policy change to support family economic self-sufficiency, literacy, and economic development through job training and education systems.
Affiliate Faculty Positions
Joseph Zilber School of Public Health
Master of Sustainable Peacebuilding, College of Nursing
Urban Studies Program, College of Letters and Science
Selected Publications
Stevenson, M., Norrbom, C., Savela, M. Xiong, Y., Lee, T., Garcia, C., Winstead, O., Northrop, M., &听Sandy, M.听(2022). Community health workers in time of crisis: A COVID-19 case study.听Journal of Humanistic Psychology.听
Allen, K. &听Sandy, M.听(in press). Dewey, Freire...and Hip-Hop?: Using Hip-Hop Pedagogy in the听Social Studies Classroom. In E. Adjapong & R. Baxter (Eds.).听#HipHopEd: The compilation听on Hip-Hop education Volume 4: Hip-Hop As pedagogy. Hip-Hop education innovation,听inspiration, elevation series. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
Bonds, M. &听Sandy, M.听(2017). State-sponsored 鈥榥ew鈥� white flight through public school听choice and its impact on contemporary urban schools: A case study of Milwaukee鈥檚 Open听Enrollment program.听International Journal of Regional Development. 4(1)听DOI:听
Schutz, A. &听Sandy, M.听(2015). Friendship and public space in schools: Revisiting Hannah听Arendt鈥檚 resistance to 鈥減olitical education.鈥澨�Educational Theory, 65(1): 21- 38.
Sandy, M.听(2015). A theory of practical beauty for service-learning and public-engaged听scholarship. In O. Delano-Oriaran, M. Parks & S. Fondrie (Eds).听Service-Learning and听Civic Engagement: A Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Franco, Z., Flower, M., Whittle, J. &听Sandy, M.听(2015). Professional ethics and virtue ethics in听community engaged healthcare training, pp. 211- 229.听In Professional responsibility: The听fundamental issue in education and health care reform. New York: Springer.
Sandy, M.听(2014). Pushed by an angel and hellbent on change: Mothers describe听overcoming family homelessness.听Humanity and Society, 38(4): 388-413听DOI:听10.1177/0160597614543741
Sandy, M.听& Franco, Z. (2014). Grounding service-learning in the digital age:
Cultivating a virtual sense of place through collaborative online mapping and mixed听media.听Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 18(4):1-34.听
Sandy, M.听(2013). It鈥檚 sweeter where the bruise is: Making sense of the experience of听family homelessness in a community-campus partnership.鈥澨�International Journal听of Qualitative Studies in Education.听DOI:听10.1080/09518398.2013.805444
Sandy, M.听(2013). Tracing the liberal arts traditions in support of service-learning and public听engaged scholarship in the humanities.听Humanity and Society, 37(4), 306-326.听DOI:听10.1177/0160597613510704
Bonds, M.,听Sandy, M.听& Farmer-Hinton, R. (2013). The rise and fall of a voluntary public听school integration transportation program: A case study of Milwaukee鈥檚 220 program (Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1976-2011).听Education and Urban Society.听DOI:听10.1177/0013124513497504
Sandy, M.听(2012). Mothering as world-building and other Hera-cies: Understanding liberal arts lineages to support public engaged scholarship.听Sofia Philosophical Review, 6(2), 25-48.听
Sandy, M.听(2011). Practical beauty and the legacy of pragmatism: Generating theory for听community-engaged scholarship.听Interchange, 42(3), 261-285.
Schutz, A. &听Sandy, M.听(2011).听Collective action for social change: An introduction to听community organizing. New York: Palgrave and MacMillan Press.
Sandy, M.听& Holland, B. (2006). Different worlds and common ground: Community partner听perspectives in campus-community partnerships.听Michigan Journal of Community听Service Learning, 13(1), 30-43.
*The term 鈥渃ommunity health worker鈥� describes grassroots, adult front-line public health or social service workers who are close to and serve members of a community by helping them to adopt healthy behaviors and to advocate for systemic transformation of inequalities communities face. They usually share race and ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, values, and/or life experiences with the community members they support.