Joseph C. Hermanowicz

Joseph C. Hermanowicz (American pronunciation Her/mán/ō/whiz; alternatively Heirman/ó/vich) specializes in the study of higher education.  His work is connected to several substantive areas: professions and occupations, organizational culture, life course studies, the sociology of science, and social psychology.  Methodologically, Hermanowicz has helped to develop longitudinal applications to qualitatively-based interviewing.  His studies span topics across the stratification of careers, work satisfaction and identity, adult socialization, conceptions of merit and achievement, the operation of reward systems, undergraduate attrition, and social-organizational problems of universities. 

The recipient of awards for both his research and his teaching, Hermanowicz is the author of The Stars Are Not Enough: Scientists—Their Passions and Professions (University of Chicago Press, 1998), Lives in Science: How Institutions Affect Academic Careers (University of Chicago Press, 2009), College Attrition at American Research Universities: Comparative Case Studies (Agathon, 2003), as well as articles and chapters in the sociology of higher education.  He is the editor of Challenges to Academic Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021) and The American Academic Profession: Transformation in Contemporary Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).

He earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago.  Hermanowicz is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.