About My Work
Read about my research aims, courses taught, service activities, and everything else.
I study the ways in which the nonprofit sector and its organizations combat, reflect, and sometimes reproduce structural inequalities.
Structural inequalities are the social systems of power that commonly lead to disparate outcomes across identities like gender, class, race, and sexual orientation. People interested in breaking down structural inequalities, that is creating social change, often work through nonprofit organizations as employees, donors, or volunteers. However, nonprofits are not immune from the same structural inequalities that many of these organizations fight against. I seek to understand how structural inequalities simultaneously give purpose to many nonprofits but also frustrate their ability to achieve those purposes.
I favor a critical humanist (i.e., interpretivist and critical) approach because this philosophical paradigm recognizes power in the form of structural inequalities as well as the power for agency within those structures. Having begun to establish myself in this mode of inquiry, I join a small group of paradigmatic pathbreakers in organization studies, nonprofit studies, and public administration, whose work expands and grows the field by centering power, inequality, and human experience.
My research is built around three overarching questions:
How do nonprofits pursue social change in the context of pressure to act like businesses?
How do nonprofits overcome barriers that inhibit their pursuit of social change?
How do nonprofits, even if unintentionally, reproduce structural inequalities?
Dr. Erynn Elizabeth Beaton
Pronouns: she/her/hers / Honorific: Dr.
Courses Taught
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Introduction to Nonprofit Organizations (PUBAFRS 2150)
The nonprofit sector serves a vital role in society, covering a range of types of institutions, organizations, and activities. The sector is unique in that it aims to address important societal needs that neither business nor government fulfill. It has grown in size, sophistication, impact, and influence over the past thirty years, and, as a result, there is an ever-growing body of research aimed at understanding the nonprofit sector, as well as attempts to professionalize the field. Through a combination of readings, writings, discussions, and guest speakers, students will become informed stakeholders of the nonprofit sector.
Typically taught in Autumn semester.
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Masters Nonprofit Capstone (PUBAFRS 7950)
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to integrate and synthesize ideas and tools from previous coursework in a capacity building project for a local nonprofit organization. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship between students and their nonprofit clients – students coalesce their knowledge while the students’ work expands the nonprofit’s capacity. The client focus allows students to demonstrate project management, team-building, and relationship management skills.
Interested in serving as a client for the course? Please fill out this application.
Typically taught each Spring semester.
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Public Affairs Qualitative Methods (PUBAFRS 7573)
This research methods course provides students with an intensive knowledge of the theory and practice of qualitative research. Readings and discussion focus on the theoretical foundations of qualitative methods and their practical relevance for public affairs. The course will enable students to learn the underlying logic of qualitative research approaches and to develop skills in moving from description to theory building with qualitative data. Students will also become familiar with key aspects of qualitative research design, as well as issues related to rigor, soundness, and the ethical dimensions of qualitative research.
Typically taught every other Spring semester.
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Nonprofit Research Seminar (PUBAFRS 7853)
The nonprofit and voluntary sector plays a vital role in American society and other national settings. This course provides public and nonprofit scholars and leaders with an orientation to the essential and distinctive characteristics of the nonprofit sector. The course is a multidisciplinary exploration into nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, and volunteerism in society. Nonprofit studies is an emerging field within the academic community, and this course is intended to introduce students to the research literature in the field.
To be taught every other Spring semester.
Service Beneficiaries
Have reviewed for Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, VOLUNTAS, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Public Performance & Management Review, Administration & Society, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Nonprofit Policy Forum, Voluntary Sector Review, Journal of Public & Nonprofit Affairs, Human Relations, and Business & Society.
A Window into Life at Home
The family: my husband Matt, Malcolm (Mac or Mac Attack for short), and myself. Visiting the Naples Zoo in Florida.
Mac's favorite animals are horses. We visit the stables to feed them apples regularly.
At the practice green. Teaching Mac to play. Nice form; just need to turn that chip into a putt.
Out for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Abundant snacks are always called for.
Our cat Cabi. She is the most wonderful cross-eyed, stubby-tailed friend.
A bonfire at the cabin. Our favorite is making s'mores.