About Me
Michael L. Tidwell (he/him/his) is a doctoral student in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia. Broadly, his work aims to increase equity in graduate education through uncovering and working to eliminate barriers to full participation in graduate education.
Currently, he is a Graduate Assistant at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government in the Survey Research and Evaluation Services Division. In this role, he primarily assists Vinson Institute clients with survey research (e.g., data collection, contributing to reports, etc.).
At Clemson University, he was involved in several funded projects that contributed to an understanding of how Black engineering students selected between HBCUs and PWIs, how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted aviation maintenance technology education, and how the driving workforce perceives and is adapting to autonomous vehicles.
His work with these teams and others has been published in well-regarded academic journals including Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Journal of Experimental Criminology, and Technology in Society.
During his time at Clemson, Michael was also a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice.
He holds a Master of Science in Social Science from Clemson University ('23) and a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (Sociology & Public Administration) from Valdosta State University ('21, Cum Laude).
Keep in touch on X and LinkedIn. Michael also hosts an updated CV on this site.
Research Directions
I am interested in using mixed methods to understand equity in graduate education, especially within the social sciences. Broadly, my work aims to...
... uncover barriers to full participation in graduate education,
... build more accessible bridges to graduate education, and
... resolve existing roadblocks to graduate degree attainment for historically excluded and underserved populations.
Who am I?
A first-generation, working-class, sociologist of higher education. A proud product -- Pre-K thru 26th grade -- and proponent of public education. TV drama lover. Football watcher. Netflix binge watcher. Non-fiction reader. Wannabe fiction lover. Recently a wannabe-art-knower!