Dr. Joanne W. Golann is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education and an Assistant Professor of Sociology (secondary appointment) at Vanderbilt University. Trained as a sociologist and an ethnographer, she seeks to understand how culture shapes educational policy and practice. She is committed to listening and learning from others, and wants her students to develop a critical lens and a sense of empathy when evaluating educational policies and programs.

Dr. Golann is currently working on a book project, Scripting the Moves: Class, Control, and Urban School Reform, based on 18 months of fieldwork inside a high-performing “no-excuses” charter school. In the book, she considers what it takes—and what it costs—to equalize opportunities for low-income students of color. She is also a lead researcher on the New Jersey Families Study, an innovative two-week home video-ethnography project that explores how families, across race and social class, build skills and knowledge in their children in their earliest years.

Dr. Golann received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She received a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in English from Amherst College. She also is a recipient of the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship