Madonna Harrington Meyer is an American sociologist, author, and academic. She is a University Professor at Syracuse University, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, and Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research, Faculty Research Affiliate at the Lerner Center, and Faculty Affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute of Syracuse University.
Harrington Meyer's research interests encompass the fields of old age policies in the United States and the physical, emotional, social and financial impacts of grandparenting among grandparents. Since 2020, she has been working in the area of food insecurity among the elderly in the United States. She has authored and co-authored several books. She is the author of Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs (2014), which won the Gerontological Society of America's Kalish Book Award. She is also the co-author of Grandparenting Children with Disabilities (2020) with Ynesse Abdul-Malak, co-editor of Grandparenting in the United States (2016) with Abdul-Malak, and co-editor of Gerontology: Changes, Challenges, and Solutions (2016) with Elizabeth Daniele. In addition, she is co-author with Pamela Herd of Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age (2007), which also won the Gerontological Society of America's Kalish Book Award and is editor of Care Work: Gender, Labor, and the Welfare State (2000).
Harrington Meyer is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Education
Harrington Meyer obtained her Baccalaureate degree in Sociology and Urban Studies from Hamline University in 1981 and received a master's degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota. She then went on to complete her Ph.D. in sociology from Florida State University in 1991 with a thesis entitled, "Universalism vs. Targeting as a Basis of Social Distribution: Gender, Race, and Long Term Care in the United States".
Career
Following her Ph.D., Harrington Meyer began her academic career as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor. In 1997, she held the position of Senior Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research and an associate professor at the Department of Sociology of Syracuse University and in 2005, she was promoted to Professor. She serves as a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and a University Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and a Faculty Research Affiliate at the Lerner Center, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute of Syracuse University.
Harrington Meyer has held administrative appointments throughout her career, including serving as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology, Director of the Gerontology Center, and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University.
Research
Harrington Meyer's research covers United States' old age policies, grandparenting, care work, and food insecurity. Her work has been covered by several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, U.S. News and World Report, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and LA Times.