Garth Massey, longtime member of the sociology and global & area studies faculties, retired from the University of Wyoming in 2008. Since leaving UW he has revised his Readings for Sociology (7th edition, W.W. Norton), done national and international consulting, reviewed books, and written a new book, Ways of Social Change (Sage/Pine Forge Press). While on the UW faculty Massey taught courses in political economy and social change, research methods and social theory, social inequality and stratification, and the sociology of work.
A lifelong interest in rural transformation began with ethnographic research projects in energy-impacted boomtowns in Wyoming and the northern Rocky Mountain states and led to several funded projects on rural transformation in Eastern Europe and East Africa, including Tanzania, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, and Hungary. Several scholarly articles and the book, Subsistence and Change: Lessons of Agropastoralism in Somalia resulted from this research.
Massey's interest in social change - spurred by the demise of the socialist systems in Eastern Europe - guided research projects on the social legacy of the communist party and the study of ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia and more recently in Israel and Palestine. This research was published in The American Sociological Review, The American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and other scholarly journals, much of it appearing in the co-authored volume, Sukobi i tolerancija (Conflict and Tolerance).
Ways of Social Change: Making Sense of Modern Times was published in September 2011. It examines the five most powerful ‘drivers' of social change the past five hundred years: science and technology; social movements; war and revolutions; the large corporation; and the state. Written as a college text designed to teach critical thinking, it tells the stories of social change in the United States and globally, with special attention to the modern civil rights movement, World War II, the changing status of women, and the rise of China as a major world power.
Currently Massey is exploring opportunities to work abroad, considering a new book on the social production of food, and enjoying living in Portland, Oregon.
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, Ph.D., Sociology (minor Political Philosophy) 1975
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, M.A., Sociology 1972
University of Missouri, Columbia, B.A. Sociology (minor Philosophy) 1970
2008-present
Professor Emeritus, International Studies Program, University of Wyoming
2006-2008
Professor of International Studies, University of Wyoming and Adjunct Professor of Sociology
1998-2008
Director, International Studies Program, University of Wyoming
1974-2006
Professor of Sociology, University of Wyoming (Department Chair 1980-84; Associate Professor 1981-87; Assistant Professor 1975-81; Instructor 1974-75)
2002
Visiting Research Fellow, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Jerusalem, Israel
2001
Visiting Professor, The Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
1998
UW London Exchange Program, University of London, UK
1993-94
Visiting Research Professor, Gödöllö University, Hungary
1993-2005
Visiting Senior Lecturer, Professional Training Institute, Taiwan
1986-88
Visiting Professor, University of Zagreb, Yugoslavia
1979-80
Senior Lecturer, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
1973-74
Associate Instructor, Honors Program, Indiana University-Bloomington
Outstanding Faculty Member for Internationalization at the University of Wyoming 2007
Top Ten Teachers, College of Arts and Sciences 2003, 2006, 2007
Presidential Lecture, University of Wyoming 1996
Fulbright Research Fellowship to Hungary 1993-94
Meritorious Research Award, College of Arts and Sciences 1992, 1994, 1999
CASE Professor of the Year - Wyoming. Awarded by the Carnegie Foundation Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Washington, D.C. 1992
John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Wyoming 1992
Meritorious Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences 1991, 1996
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Fellowship 1982
Fulbright-Hayes Teacher Exchange Award to Tanzania 1979-80
Amoco Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Wyoming 1978
Indiana University Graduate Fellowship 1973-4
National Science Foundation Traineeship 1970-73
Principles of Sociology
Social Change
Race and Ethnic Relations
Social Research Methods
Sociology of International Development
Sociology of Work
Social Inequality
Sociological Theory
Advanced Sociological Theory
Advanced Research Methods
International Studies Senior Capstone Course, various topics
Seminars: Ethnic Conflict
Social Change in Socialist Societies
Social Change in Eastern Europe
Changing Work in a Global Economy
Honors Seminar: The World in Flux
Freshman Honors Colloquium
Seeing with Different Eyes. Course taught as part of the Summer High School Institute, University of Wyoming, 1990-1993, 1995
