Background
Synnott, Marcia Graham was born on July 4, 1939 in Camden, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of Thomas Whitney and Beatrice Adelaide (Colby) Synnott.
( By the turn of the twentieth century, academic nativism...)
By the turn of the twentieth century, academic nativism had taken root in elite American colleges—specifically, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant hegemony was endangered by new kinds of student, many of them Catholic and Jewish immigrants. The newcomers threatened to displace native-born Americans by raising academic standards and winning a disproportionate share of the scholarships. The Half-Opened Door analyzes the role of these institutions, casting light on their place in class structure and values in the United States. It details the origins, history, and demise of discriminatory admissions processes and depicts how the entrenched position of the upper class was successfully challenged. The educational, and hence economic, mobility of Catholics and Jews has shown other groups—for example, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Spanish-speaking Americans—not only the difficulties that these earlier aspirants had in overcoming class and ethnic barriers, but the fact that it can be done. One of the ironies of the history of higher education in the United States is the use of quotas by admissions committees. Restrictive measures were imposed on Jews because they were so successful, whereas benign quotas are currently used to encourage underrepresented minorities to enter colleges and professional schools. The competing claims of both the older and the newer minorities continue to be the subject of controversy, editorial comments, and court cases—and will be for years to come.
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Synnott, Marcia Graham was born on July 4, 1939 in Camden, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of Thomas Whitney and Beatrice Adelaide (Colby) Synnott.
AB, Radcliffe College, 1961. Master of Arts, Brown University, 1964. Doctor of Philosophy, University Massachusetts, 1974.
History teacher MacDuffie School, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1963-1968. Instructor University South Carolina, Columbia, 1972-1974, assistant professor, 1974-1979, associate professor history, 1979-1997, director graduate studies history department, 1990-1992, professor history, 1997—2005, emeritus professor history, since 2005.
( By the turn of the twentieth century, academic nativism...)
Active university-wide community service projects. Member American History Association, Southern History Association (membership committee 2009-2010), Organization American Historians (membership committee 1990-1993), South Carolina History Association (president 1994-1995), History of Education Society (member editorial board 1996, 97, 98, board directors 2000-2002).
Married Willard Edwin Sharp, June 16, 1979. Children: Willard Sharp, Laurel Beth Sharp.