Dorothy E. Smith

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For the English novelist and playwright Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (1896-1990), see Dodie Smith.

Dorothy Edith Smith is a Canadian sociologist who has had immense impacts on sociology and many other disciplines including women's studies, psychology, and educational studies, as well as sub-fields of sociology including feminist theory, family studies, and methodology. She founded the sociological sub-discipline of Institutional Ethnography. She did her undergraduate work at the London School of Economics and received her PHD in Sociology at the University of California at Berkley in 1963. In 1967 she moved to Vancouver British Columbia to teach at the University of British Columbia. There she was important in the process of establishing a Women's Studies Program.

In 1977 she moved to Toronto, Ontario, with her two sons to work at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where she stayed until retirement. At this time she is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, where she continues her work in institutional ethnography.

Smith was born on July 6, 1926 in Northallerton, Yorkshire England to Dorothy F. Place and Tom Place, into a family including three bothers. One of her brothers, Ullin Place, is well known for his work on consciousness as a process of the brain, another is a recognized British poet, Milner Place.

[edit] Selected works

  • Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People (2005)
  • Mothering for Schooling -- with Alison Griffith (2004)
  • Writing the Social: Critique, Theory, and Investigations (1999)
  • The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge (1990)
  • Texts, Facts, and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling (1990)
  • The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (1987)
  • Feminism and Marxism: A Place to Begin, A Way to Go (1977)

[edit] Professional recognition

In recognition of her contributions in "transformation of sociology", and for extending boundaries of "feminist standpoint theory" to "include race, class, and gender", Dr. Smith received numerous awards from American Sociological Association, including the American Sociological Association's Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award (1999) and the Jessie Bernard Award for Feminist Sociology (1993). In recognition of her scholarship, she also received two awards from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association: the Outstanding Contribution Award (1990) and the John Porter Award for her book "The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology." (1990).

[edit] External links

Relevant Reviews, articles and links on Dorothy Smith and Institutional Ethnography:

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