Mary Ellen Godwyn

Mary Godwyn teaches in the History and Society Division at Babson College. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis University. She has lectured at Harvard University and taught at Brandeis University and Lasell College, where she was also the Director of the Donahue Institute for Public Values. Godwyn focuses on social theory as it applies to issues of inequality in formal and informal organizations. She studies entrepreneurship as a vehicle for the economic and political advancement of marginalized populations, especially women and minorities. She has published in journals such as Symbolic Interaction (University of California Press), Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (Elsevier), and the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Her books include Minority Women Entrepreneurs: How Outsider Status Can Lead to Better Business Practices (2011), co-authored with Donna Stoddard, D.B.A., published by Greenleaf Publishing and Stanford University Press, and Sociology of Organizations: Structures and Relationships (2011), co-authored with Jody Hoffer Gittell, published by SAGE Publications/Pine Forge Press.

Godwyn served on the executive committee of the Critical Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management from 2008-2011, and was also the 2008 winner of the Dark Side Case Competition for her case "Hugh Connerty and Hooters: What is Successful Entrepreneurship?" Her research has been funded by the Coleman Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Harold S. Geneen Charitable Trust and the Babson College Board of Research Fund. In addition to scholarship and teaching, Godwyn consults to colleges and universities about the integration of entrepreneurship and liberal arts programs.