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Dr. Sondra N. Barringer, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She is also the Director of the Ed.D. in Higher Education program.

Her research agenda is focused on understanding the behaviors of colleges and universities and, in particular, how they engage with and respond to their environments. She leverages novel data and methodological approaches, in combination with organizational theories, to answer innovative questions that are fundamental to understanding how colleges and universities function within our society. Through this work she illuminates how these organizations react, often in different ways, to their external environments and also how they in turn shape their environments through these reactions and their other practices. Her research is organized around three critical aspects of college and universities: their governance, organizational practices, and structures. All three of these are all fundamental in shaping how these organizations function and the conditions of those within these institutions (e.g., faculty, students, and staff).

Dr. Barringer’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Association for Institutional Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the University of Arizona. Her work has also been published in a variety of journals including The Journal of Higher Education, Research Policy, Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, Teachers College Record, Innovative Higher Education, Scientometrics, and Community College Review.

Dr. Barringer earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from the University of Arizona. She earned her B.A. in Sociology and Economics at Baylor University. Prior to joining the faculty at ÃÛÌÒ½´she was a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Associate at the University of Georgia’s Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. At ÃÛÌÒ½´she teaches graduate courses in faculty and academic governance, organizational theory, research design, and statistics.

Research: Selected Publications (*=graduate student co-author)

Barringer, S. N., Riffe, K. A. & Collier, K.* (2023). “Presidents as Agents of Connection: An Exploratory Study of University Presidential Ties in the United States 2005-2020.” Higher Education 86:1129-1150.

Taylor, B. J., Barringer, S. N. and Slaughter, S. (2022) “Trusteeship and university outputs: Board industry ties, endowments and publications, 1985-2015.” Teachers College Record. 124(9): 3–35.

Barringer, S. N. & Riffe, K. A. (2022) “Philanthropy at elite research universities: The role of trustees and trustee-affiliated organizations.” Philanthropy & Education. 5(2): 31-55.

Barringer, S. N. & Pryor, K. N.* (2022) “Understanding Academic Structure: Variation, Stability and Change at the Center of the Modern Research University.” Review of Higher Education. 45(3): 365-408.

Barringer, S. N., Taylor, B. J., Riffe, K., & Slaughter, S. (2022) “How University Leaders Shape Boundaries and Behaviors: An Empirical Examination of Trustee Involvement at Elite US Research Universities.” Higher Education Policy 35: 102-132. (Online First 2020)

Pryor, K. N.* & Barringer, S. N. (2022) “Reaffirming or Challenging Boundaries? Exploring Hybrid Academic Units in Modern Research University Hierarchies.” Innovative Higher Education. 47(1): 45-72.

Riffe, K. A. and Barringer, S. N. (2021) “The Intersection of Institutional and Worker Hierarchies: Understanding Factors Related to Non-Instructional Staff Salaries Over Time.” Review of Higher Education. 44(4):447-492.

McClure, K., Barringer, S. N., & Brown, J. (2020) “Privatization as the new normal in higher education: Synthesizing literature and reinvigorating research through a multilevel framework.” Higher Education Handbook for Theory and Research. 35: 589-666.

Barringer, S. N., Leahey, E., & Salazar, K.* (2020) “What catalyzes research universities to commit to interdisciplinary research?” Research in Higher Education. 61: 679-705.

Leahey, E. & Barringer, S. N. (2020) “Universities’ commitment to interdisciplinary research: To what end?” Research Policy. 49(2): 103910.

Barringer, S. N., Taylor, B. J., and Slaughter, S. (2019) “Trustees in turbulent times: External affiliations and stratification among US research universities, 1975-2015.” The Journal of Higher Education. 90(6): 884-914.

Leahey, E., Barringer, S. N., & Ring-Ramirez, M.* (2019) “Universities’ structural commitment to interdisciplinary research.” Scientometrics.118(3): 891-919.

Barringer, S. N. & Jaquette, O. (2018) “The moving missions of community colleges: An examination of degree-granting profiles over time.” Community College Review. 46(4): 417-443.

Taylor, B. J., Barringer, S. N., & Warshaw, J. B.* (2018) “Affiliated nonprofit organizations: Strategic action and research universities.” The Journal of Higher Education. 89(4): 422-452.

Barringer, S. N. & Riffe, K. A.* (2018) “Not just figureheads: Trustees as microfoundations of higher education institutions” Innovative Higher Education. 43(3): 155-170.

Barringer, S. N. (2016). The changing finances of public higher education organizations: Diversity, change and discontinuity. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 46, 223-263.