Academics

Geertje E Wiersma

Professional Details

Spring Courses

Professional Biography

Having been raised and education in the Netherlands, and having lived in the United States since 1969, my research and studies have focused on cross-cultural comparisons between the Netherlands and the United States. Most recently, I am writing in the area of the Dutch cultural search for compromise in comparison with the "U.S. Argument Society." My lectures frequently challenge students to become global thinkers by expanding their sociological horizons. Awards Distinguished Service Award: Salem State College, 1981 Speaker, Presidential Lecture Series: Salem State College, 1983 Distinguished Service Award: Salem State College, 1984 North Shore Woman of the Year Nominee, 1985

Responsibilities

SOC 201: Introduction to Sociology SOC 350: Sociological Theory I SOC 360: Research Methods SOC 314: On Death and Dying SOC 315: Modern Life Styles

Selected Publications

Evaluation of Dutch Rural Countrywomen's Associations (Membership Structure and Program Execution), Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Social Extension Services, The Hague, Netherlands, April 1968 Heechterp, a New Urban Community: Its Physical and Social Qualities (Evaluation of Design Propositions in Relation to Satisfaction and Housing Experiences of the Residents) Wageningen University, Housing Department, Report Nubmer 8, September 1968 (With John Mogey and Mary Donahue) - Social Effects of Eminent Domain: Changes in Households After Involuntary Relocation for Southwest Expressway (I-95), Boston, 1968-1970, Boston University, July 1971 Worcester model Cities Resident Attitude Survey - Survey Research Program: A Facility of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT, Harvard University, and the University of Massachusetts, November 1972 (With Thomas W. Mangione) - An Evaluation of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Women's Studies Program Survey Research Program: A Facility of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT, Harvard University, and the University of Massachusetts, September 1974 Cohabitation: An Alternative to Marriage? A Cross-National Study, s'Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, May 1983 Reflections of the American Welfare State, Cultural and Theoretical Roots of Recent Radical Welfare Reform, University of Wageningen, October 1997 The Promised Land of Compromise, University of Wegeningen, September, 1998

Personal Interests

Chief Financial Officer of the Salem Mission (feeding and sheltering program for the hungry and homeless poor), 1980-1996