Methods of Life Course Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Janet Zollinger Giele (AB, Earlham College; PhD, Harvard University) is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Social Policy, and Women′s Studies at Brandeis University.  She was the founding director of the Family and Children′s Policy Center in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management (1990-1996) and Acting Dean of the Heller School in 1993-94. In the 1960s, she taught at Wellesley College and in the 1970s was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe and Principal Consultant to the Ford Foundation Task Force on Women. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Institute on Aging, Lilly Endowment, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.  In 2000, she was honored by Radcliffe with the Graduate Society Medal.  The author or editor of ten books, her special areas of interest are  women′s changing roles, methods of life course research, and sociology of the family and family policy. Since 1976 when she joined the faculty of the Heller School, she has directed over thirty doctoral dissertations and is currently writing a guidebook on doctoral research and the earmarks of a good dissertation.

Glen H. Elder, Jr. is Research Professor of Sociology and Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and manages a research program on life course studies. He has also served on the faculties of the University of California (Berkeley) and Cornell University. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elder has served as Vice-President of the American Sociological Association (1989), and as President of the Sociological Research Association (1999) and of the Society for Research on Child Development (1995-97). His books (authored, co-authored, edited) include Children of the Great Depression (1974; 1999, expanded edition), Life Course Dynamics (1985), Children in Time and Place (1993), Families in Troubled Times (1994), Examining Lives in Context (1995), Developmental Science (1996), Methods of Life Course Research (1998), and Children of the Land: Adversity and Success in Rural America (2000: William J. Goode Award).