An Ohio University professor has received a prominent award for her research on welfare reform and its implications in Appalachian Ohio and Indonesia.
The Rural Sociological Society selected Ann Tickamyer, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, for its Distinguished Rural Sociologist award. The professor is a former president of the society and has been a member for many years. (The award) is a great honor
Tickamyer said. It means that your colleagues and your peers in research and the professional world recognize your work so it's very gratifying.
Tickamyer joined OU's faculty in 1996 and teaches a course on the sociology of poverty and on gender in work and global perspective, which looks at the differences between men and women in the workplace throughout the world. She also leads graduate seminars on poverty development and social welfare provisions.
Since 1999, Tickamyer said she and colleagues from her department have analyzed the sufficiency of organizations involved in welfare reform and their effects. It was this work that the society recognized with the award.
Much of my current research is focused on the impacts of welfare and rural individuals families and communities here in Appalachian Ohio
she said.
Welfare reform is a federal experiment involving the whole nation, Tickamyer said. Through her research she hopes to find if the experiment accomplished its goal of helping citizens be self-sufficient and to see what programs have worked, she said.
Unfortunately
a lot of what we see is somewhat discouraging
because we have an increase in poverty (caused by the reforms)
Tickamyer said. There wasn't attention paid to special problems of rural areas and less understanding in program design of what rural communities were dealing with.
Such programs include the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, she said.
Congress was supposed to look at what had happened (in 2001)
decide whether (the reforms) were working and decide whether they should make changes in the programs or funding formulas
she said. We're at 2005 and nothing has happened yet.
Though the government has not yet reauthorized the reforms, Tickamyer said her research group continues to work because there are always more interesting developments, especially during the current economic recession and growing unemployment problem.
All of us involved in the project are really deeply committed to finding out how poor people
families and communities can not just survive
but prosper
