Associate Professor Traci Levy Reports on Her Sabbatical

Associate Professor Traci Levy

In August, I returned from a one-semester sabbatical. Unlike my colleagues, my current research doesn’t require me to trek upstate, to the United Nations Headquarters, or overseas to conduct interviews; nor does it require me to visit far-flung archives.

As a political theorist who also has an eye on domestic politics, I used my sabbatical time to focus on and enlarge my research on the politics of care. I read piles of academic books and journal articles about care theory, family policy landscapes, and the U.S. military. I studied legislation regarding caregiver and military exigency leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, and analyzed every State of the Union address since President Eisenhower’s. I did travel a bit: I attended several days of interesting panels at a political science conference in Seattle.  Extending my work on a co-authored paper on caregiving by disabled parents also kept me busy. I turned all of this research into a conference paper (which I also presented in Seattle) and then two article manuscripts.

This semester, I am very happy to be back in the classroom and to see my students and colleagues more regularly.