Former Notre Dame sociology professor Maureen Hallinan died Jan. 28 in South Bend at the age of 73 after an illness, according to a University news release.
Hallinan, the William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Notre Dame joined the College of Arts and Letters in 1984, the release stated. She was the second woman at the University appointed to an endowed chair and the founding director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity.
“It is impossible to think about Notre Dame sociology without thinking of Maureen Hallinan,” department chair Rory McVeigh said in the release. “Her extraordinary research accomplishments and her high visibility in sociology, and in education research more generally, put a spotlight on our department in a way that benefitted her colleagues and attracted strong faculty members and graduate students to Notre Dame.”
Hallinan authored or edited nine books and more than 120 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals. Her research in the field of sociology of education included work on the effects of school characteristics on student achievement and social development, the formation of interracial friendships in middle and secondary schools and achievement gaps between races. She was renowned for her research on academic tracking and children’s responses to being tracked above or below their capabilities, the release stated.
During her 28-year tenure at the University, Hallinan received Notre Dame’s Presidential Award Citation in 1997, the Research Achievement in 2003, the Faculty Award in 2006 and the Excellence in Research on Catholic Education Award in 2007. Beyond her work at Notre Dame, Hallinan served as president of the American Sociological Association in 1996 and president of the Sociological Research Association in 2000.
A visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday at Kaniewski Funeral Home, 3545 N. Bendix Drive, South Bend. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, followed by interment in Notre Dame’s Cedar Grove Cemetery.
Memorial contributions can be made to the University’s Alliance for Catholic Education.
