I first introduced this CD/HD/FS Meme here.
(1) Sketch a quick "map" of your field: What do you see as some of the different influences, ideas and theories that provide the directions and major landmarks in your discipline?
As a multidisciplinary field, family science has many "landmarks." Definitely the major fields of sociology, psychology, and anthropology are represented prominently on the map. So, too, clinical and practice fields like social work, nursing, education, and therapy/counseling.
In my opinion the most overlooked landmark, however, is human ecology. Deep within land grant traditions, closely tied to the idea that people can be helped with science to go about their home and family lives is this important marker of the family science field. A central feature of this landmark are theoretical frameworks that see humans as part of interacting systems that include other people, the various social contexts they create, and the various constructed environments they erect.
(2) Where do you see yourself currently on this "map" of disciplinary influences, ideas, and theories?
Right now I am at the intersection of "Family" and "State." I am most interested in experiences and phenomena that come about when formal government systems (e.g., the law, policy, social service agencies) interact with family systems. This interest is typified in my current focuses on adoption and assisted reproductive technology.
(3) What road(s) did you travel to get where you are right now?
A long and bumpy road! I actually began my undergraduate career in journalism, because I loved to write. After having to leave Boston University for financial reasons, I stayed in Beantown and eventually began working as an aide in a Head Start classroom. That hooked me on working with children and, because of Head Start's large and mandatory family component, their families.
When I returned to a bachelor's program it was in early childhood education at Lesley College. Another fork in the road (which I took *chuckle*) came when I graduated from Lesley: I had in one hand acceptance to the graduate program in the department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue and in my other hand a teaching job offer in one of the suburban Boston school districts in a (I think) first grade classroom.
...After completing my Masters at Purdue, I eventually worked as the head administrator for the family child care program on an Army base in Germany. This was service to children, families, and community like nothing I had ever experienced before. When I returned to graduate school I chose a program (my current one) I thought would best position me to take full advantage of all these experiences.
(4) What is the significance of your current work, in terms of how it situates you and/or others on this map, or how it charts future courses for your discipline?
I think where I am now is significant because it places me (again) at a fork in the road. A huge part of so many political debates in the US involves the extent to which we want government to be part of our private lives. Should the State just get out of our way and let us do as we please? What are the implications of this stance for children? Minority groups? The poor? Should the government serve in a protective or assistive role? Protection of and assistance to who? And how? And who decides? Should there be no "private realm" at all in family matters? What are the implications of this stance for various groups of people?
One direction I see myself as taking would further take on these issues from the standpoint of children. This road might lead me further into work with adoptive families as well as other kinds of "complex" families. Another direction might involve emerging technological issues related to genetics and other technologies and their impact on family life. Still another road would contain elements of both of these directions...
It's hard to say (and I am open to all ideas!)
(5) What fields/disciplines have your colleagues been from? How have these collaborations influenced your placement on the "map"? If you are a grad student and feel you have not really had working "colleagues" yet, what fields do you feel they may come from in the future?
My colleagues in terms of fellow students have been from all sorts of exciting backgrounds: social workers, therapists, policy makers, law students, clergy members, psychologists... They have definitely influenced my current position on the disciplinary map. I'd be literally lost without the expertise I've gained from these folks because otherwise there would be no way for me to get this expertise on my own.
(6) What changes or new directions in career path do you feel will be open to to the incoming 2005/2006 cohort of graduate students? Where is the money going in your field?
I think one exciting career possibility for new grad students in my department has been opened up with the new multidisciplinary Family Policy Minor. This initiative has the three elements I believe are crucial to future graduate training in my field: First is the opportunity for alternative career paths--besides research and teaching at the college/university level. Second is the opportunity for truly multidisciplinary interactions apart from the "usual suspects" such as psychology and socioloy. And third is the opportunity to seek funding and collaboration from novel sources such as the government (including the military--for example see here), private industry, and the health/medical/pharmaceutical sector.
I only wish I knew "where the money is" in my field! I do think that those three components I mentioned are a big part in shaking the money tree for grad students in family science. Future students (heck, current students!) will have to be a lot more entrepreneurial and proactive in thinking about what we'll do post PhD. I also think programs will have to be more serious about identifying more terminal masters routes for students, which will be a lot more attractive to mid-career swittchers, first generation graduate students, and students of color--not to mention more economically beneficial, such as from a lost opportunity costs standpoint.
I also suspect that the area of health care will play a major role, and anyone who is able to associate their family-related research activities with that area will have a big leg up in the job market. And it's probably no surprise that I think students in my discipline will need to get over whatever technophobia they may have to position themselves for the best future opportunities.
Well, that's my two-cents' worth. (Email me if you want your change back!) I've heard from a couple of folks I've "tagged" with this meme--They are swamped with other commitments but hope to get to it soon. And my invitation to folks in other fields still stands. Just my luck if my first attempt at meme-ing yields zero responses!