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Sanford F. Schram
Sanford Francis Schram (born January 18, 1949) is a noted American political scientist and author. His principal area of interest and expertise is welfare policy. His scholarship and activism are concentrated on reform of the social welfare system in the United States. He has testified before Congress on welfare reform and his published empirical research on “welfare migration” was used before the U.S Supreme Court in the case Saenz v. Roe, which overturned state and national residency requirements for welfare recipients. He is a professor of social theory and policy in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. He also teaches undergraduate courses in political science and sociology at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. He is the author of 5 books about welfare and co-author or co-editor of 7 others. He is the only person to have twice received the American Political Science Association's Michael Harrington award--for his books Words of Welfare: The Poverty of Social Science and the Social Science of Poverty (University of Minnesota Press, 1995) and Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

His 2013 book is entitled Becoming a Footnote: An Activist-Scholar Finds His Voice, Learns to Write, and Survives Academia (Albany: SUNY Press, 2013), about which it is written: “For those who know of the author’s work, this book provides a revealing glimpse into the man behind the reputation. But, even for those unfamiliar with it, Becoming a Footnote is a highly readable and engaging account of a life’s work that would be of interest to anyone pursuing an academic position, including those who wonder how to remain real and relevant from inside academia.” — Vicki Lens, Columbia University.

“This book drew me in and works as a narrative on two levels. First, it is disarmingly and convincingly self-deprecating about the struggle to become a critical thinker, to write well, and to devise research programs that would shed light on major questions. Second, it is a valuable history of the central debates around social welfare policy, neoliberalism, and racial stigma.” — James Scott, author of The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia.

In 2012, Schram received the Charles McCoy Career Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association (New Political Science Section) which is given each year to "a progressive political scientist who has had a long successful career as a writer, teacher, and activist".

Jamie Peck, the Canada Research Chair in Urban & Regional Political Economy and Professor of Geography, at the University of British Columbia, has stated: "There are few, if any, better guides to the tortuous politics of welfare reform than Sanford Schram. His path-breaking contributions bear comparison to those of [Frances Fox] Piven and [Richard] Cloward. I can think of no higher recommendation".

Career
Sanford Schram earned his BA from St. Lawrence University in 1971, and his MA and PhD from the State Univeristy of New York (SUNY) at Albany in 1973 and 1979. He was Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor, Political Science at State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam from 1980 to 1991, Associate Professor of Political Science at Macalester College from 1991 to 1996, and Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Hawaii from 1996 to 1997. He has been Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College, since 1997 and has been associated with the National Poverty Center, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor since 2007. Schram has lectured widely abroad as well as in the U.S. at: the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University. the University of Strasbourg, France, the University of Tampere, Finland, University College Cork, Ireland, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Haifa University, Israel, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria, University of Vienna, Austria, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, University College Olso, Norway and elsewhere.