Laura Parson

Interim Head, Associate Professor, Educational, Organizational & Policy Studies Director

Faculty

School of Education

Parson smiling confidently at camera

Laura's Ph.D. is in Teaching & Learning, Higher Education from the University of North Dakota. Additionally, she has a MEd in Adult Education from Westminster College with a certification in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL). She received the 2019 NASPA Ruth Strang award for research concerning women in higher education and was the first recipient of the Gloria Nathanson Research Fund for International Research. She is the co-editor of a four-volume edited series titled Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education, the first volume was published in 2020, the second and third in 2021, and the fourth in 2022.

Areas of Study & Research

Laura Parson's research questions seek to understand how translocal practices (institutional discourses, policies, practices and procedures) coordinate the work of faculty and students in higher education. She explores those questions through Institutional Ethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis.

Publications

Books
Parson, L. (2025). Understanding and Supporting College Students with Empathy: A Guide for Higher Education Practitioners. Routledge.

Parson, L. & Ozaki. C. C. (2022). Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education: Online and Virtual Settings. New York: NY: Palgrave.

Parson, L. & Ozaki. C. C. (2021). Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education: Co-curricular Environments. New York: NY: Palgrave.

Ozaki. C. C. & Parson, L. (2021). Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education: Content Areas. New York: NY: Palgrave.

Parson, L. & Ozaki. C. C. (June 2020). Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Education: Foundations. New York: NY: Palgrave.

Parson, L. (2019). Polygamy, Women, and Higher Education – Life after Mormon Fundamentalism. New York, NY: Palgrave.

Special Issues
Parson, L., Ed (2025). Institutional Ethnographies in Education. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research (JEQR).

Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles
Steele, A., & Parson, L. (2025). The ideal graduate student: How gendered discourses shape the experiences of women doctoral students in biology. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lCVMB9lvyhRuWKqJMdYwMdPtYmhGA8j9/view

*Schubert, E., *Shovkoplyas, C., Parson, L., Saunders, F., Arnold, L., & Pillai, R. G., (2025). Exploring the work of women faculty through the lens of care: An institutional ethnography of caregiving and carereceiving in higher education. Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, 44, 57-71. https://doi.org/10.21423/awlj-v43.a540

*Saunders, F., Parson, L., *Schubert, E. C., *Shovkoplyas, C., Arnold, L., & Pillai, R. G. (2025). Institutional Ethnography of Women Faculty in Higher Education: Understanding Gendered Experiences and Power Dynamics. Higher Education Politics and Economics, 11(2), 77-99. https://doi.org/10.32674/70qkms92

Parson, L. (2025). A critical discourse analysis of presidential email communications. Innovative Higher Education. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-024-09769-7

Steele, A., & Parson, L. (2024). Trial by fire: An institutional ethnographic exploration of the impact of neoliberal discourses on women doctoral students’ experiences in biology. Innovative Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-024-09745-1

Parson, L. & McCloud, L. (2023). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Social Justice Language in Introductory HESA Syllabi. The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE). https://www.doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.2203101

Parson, L., Donato, S., & Johns, J. (2022). Adventure Science as transformative outdoor education: An exploration of learning. The Qualitative Report, 27(4). https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.4925

Parson, L. (2021). The glass cage or how we no body ourselves and others. Hypatia, 37(1), 187-195. https://www.doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2021.79

Parson, L. & Steele, A, & Wilkins, E. (2021). A Gendered “Ideal?” Discourses that Characterize the Ideal Scientist. International Journal of Gender, Science, and Technology. http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/735/1171

Steele, A., Parson, L. & Wilkins, E. (2020). Coordinating transitions: Exploring the STEM institution from the standpoint of freshman and transfer undergraduate women. Journal for STEM Education Research, 3(3), 343-367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-020-00036-w

Parson, L. & Steele, A. (2020). Hungarian Higher Education in crisis? An institutional ethnography of an international university in Hungary. JSPTE, 5, 7-34. https://doi.org/10.28945/4490

Parson, L. & Steele, A. (2019). Institutional autonomy and academic freedom in Hungary: A historiography of Hungarian higher education. Colleges & Universities, 94(4), 10-23. https://www.aacrao.org/research-publications/quarterly-journals/college-university-journal/article/c-u-vol.-94-no.-4-fall-2019/institutional-autonomy-and-academic-freedom-in-hungary-a-historiography-of-hungarian-higher-education

Parson, L., Gross, J., Williams, A. (2019). The language of retrenchment: A discourse analysis of budget cutting in higher education. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education (JSPTE), 4, (33-48). https://doi.org/10.28945/4365

Parson, L. (2018). An institutional ethnography of higher education: The experiences of undergraduate women majoring in math and physics. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, 13(1), 18-33.

Parson, L. (2018). Digital media responses to a feminist scholarly article: A critical discourse analysis. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), 576-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1468348

Parson, L., Childs, B., & Elzie, P. (2018). Designing a Health Professions Education certificate program to meet the needs of students, administrators, faculty, and patients. Health Professions Education, 4(3), 207-217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpe.2018.03.008

Parson, L. & Ozaki, C. C. (2017). Discourses that inform the chilly climate in math and physics. Journal of Research in STEM Education, 3(1/2), 34-47.

Parson, L. & Ozaki, C. C. (2017). Gendered student ideals in STEM in higher education. Journal of Women and Gender, 2, 171-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/19407882.2017.1392323

Parson, L. (2016). Are STEM syllabi gendered? A feminist critical discourse analysis. The Qualitative Report, 21(1), 102-116. Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol21/iss1/9