Marilyn J. Gittell
{{Short description|American academic and education reformer}}
{{Cleanup rewrite|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marilyn J. Gittell
| birth_name = Marilyn Audrey Jacobs
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|04|03}}
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, United States
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|1931}}
| education = {{Unbulleted list|City University of New York|New York University (MPA, PhD)}}
}}
Marilyn Jacobs Gittell (April 3, 1931 – 2010) was an American scholar and education reformer. She is best known for her role in decentralizing the New York City public school administration, shifting power from the New York City Board of Education to 32 community school boards throughout New York City's five boroughs.{{Cite news|last=Fox|first=Margalit|date=March 13, 2010|title=Marilyn Gittell, Advocate for Local School Decisions, Dies at 78|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13gittell.html}}
Early life
Born Marilyn Audrey Jacobs in Brooklyn, New York on April 3, 1931, she attended Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1952. She continued her studies at New York University, where she earned her Masters in Public Administration and her PhD in political science.
Career
Gittell's teaching career spanned six decades and was spent entirely within the City University of New York (CUNY). Gittell began teaching in the department of Political Science at Queens College, CUNY in 1960. She remained in the department until 1971 when she founded the Urban Studies department and became its department chair. During her time at Queens College, Gittell also co-founded the Urban Studies department there{{Cite web |title=About Urban Studies At QC – Urban Studies at Queens College |url=https://qcurban.org/about-2/ |access-date=2022-06-23 |language=en-CAC}} and directed the Institute for Community Studies.
In 1973, she became associate provost and assistant vice president of Brooklyn College, CUNY. At the time, she was the highest-ranking woman at the college.{{Cite web|url=https://gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu/about-the-archive|title=Dr. Marilyn Gittell: Activist-Scholar · Marilyn Gittell Digital Archive|website=gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu}} She remained at Brooklyn College until 1978 when she joined the Political Science department at the CUNY Graduate Center and directed the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center. She served in these capacities until her death in 2010.
Gittell initiated the academic journal, Urban Affairs Review (then Urban Studies Quarterly) in 1965.{{Cite web|url=https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/press/sage-announces-new-editors-for-its-longest-held-journal-urban-affairs-review|title=SAGE announces new editors for its longest-held journal Urban Affairs Review|date=January 9, 2014|website=SAGE Publications Inc}}
A posthumous collection of selected works by Gittell, entitled Activist Scholar, highlights three key themes in her work: education reform and citizen participation, community-based organizations and community organizing, and women's leadership, social capital, and social change.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-03 |title=Activist Scholar |url=https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/activist-scholar/book236742 |access-date=2022-06-23 |website=SAGE Publications Inc |language=en}} In the 1990s, her research on education reform and community development organizations was supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.https://gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu/files/original/b2870b617958ab12be701452aa311a1f.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}
Conflict at Ocean Hill-Brownsville and New York City teacher's strike of 1968
Marilyn Gittell's research and activism frequently informed one another. Gittell played a critical role in the historical events related to the New York City public school decentralization efforts of the late 1960s and subsequent backlash and community-led efforts (see New York City teachers' strike of 1968 and Ocean Hill, Brooklyn). As founding director of the Institute for Community Studies (ICS) at Queens College and funded through a Ford Foundation grant, Gittell and ICS provided technical guidance and supported a public awareness campaign in support of the demonstration districts selected to pilot decentralized public school leadership and community-led schools.{{Cite web|url=https://gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu/scholarship|title=Marilyn's role in Ocean-Hill Brownsville · Marilyn Gittell Digital Archive|website=gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu}} Gittell is cited as a "main architect" of the decentralization effort, which she described in a retrospective interview as "decentralizing power" and an attempt at community control.{{Cite web |last=Keane |first=Julie Thompson |date=2003-12-01 |title=Marilyn Gittell |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2003/12/express/marilyn-gittell |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}} Gittell's position in support of the demonstration districts placed her into direct conflict with those opposed to school decentralization, most notably the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and its director Albert Shanker. Shanker and Marcoantonio Lacatena, President, Council of N.J. State College Locals (AFL–CIO) both attacked Gittell publicly, targeting her scholarship.{{Cite web|url=https://gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu/items/browse?tags=Marcoantionio+Lacentena|title=Browse Items · Marilyn Gittell Digital Archive|website=gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu}}{{Cite web|url=https://gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu/items/browse?tags=Albert+Shanker|title=Browse Items · Marilyn Gittell Digital Archive|website=gittell.newmedialab.cuny.edu}} Her co-authored book with Maurice Berube on the conflict, Confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville, has been called a "classic" on the matter.
Family
Legacy
After her death, several awards, fellowships, and a named chair position were established to honor Gittell. The Urban Affairs Association created the Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award, which seeks to reward scholars who are directly engaged with impacted communities around a specific policy issue, such as Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and Nico Calavita.[https://urbanaffairsassociation.org/awards/marilyn-j-gittell-activist-scholar-award/ Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award]{{Cite web |title=Marilyn Gittell Activist Scholar Award Archives |url=https://www.socialsciencespace.com/tag/marilyn-gittell-activist-scholar-award/ |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=Social Science Space |language=en-US}} The Graduate Center of the City University of New York memorialized Gittell through the Marilyn J. Gittell Endowed Chair in Urban Studies, currently held by Professor Celina Su,{{Cite web|url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/News/2014/November/GC-Announces-Inaugural-Recipient-of-Marilyn-Jacobs-Gittell-Endowed-Chair|title=GC Announces Inaugural Recipient of Marilyn Jacobs Gittell Endowed Chair|website=www.gc.cuny.edu}} and the Marilyn J. Gittell Postdoctoral and Dissertation Fellowships.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Prospective-Current-Students/Financing-Your-Education/Doctoral-Funding/Current-Students|title=Current Students|website=www.gc.cuny.edu}} In addition, the Marilyn J. Gittell Endowed Chair anchors the Gittell Urban Studies Collective, which seeks to honor Gittell and build on her legacy of participatory research (especially on and in cities), commitment to racial, gender, and economic justice, and promoting collaborative research programs.{{Cite web|url=https://gittellcollective.gc.cuny.edu/about/|title=About|date=June 8, 2015}} Her digital archives (representing a selection of her works and papers) now live online at the CUNY New Media Lab, which her paper archives now reside at Queens College.
References
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Category:Educators from Brooklyn
Category:CUNY Graduate Center faculty
Category:New York University alumni
Category:Brooklyn College alumni
Category:Queens College, City University of New York faculty