Since 2007, Sociology Professor Susan Opotow Ph.D. has been educating scholars at John Jay College, but her extensive examination of justice issues dates back much further. “All of my work throughout my career is on one construct. It’s called the scope of justice,” Opotow explains. “When the scope of justice widens, more groups of people are included as deserving fair treatment. I think of the three Civil War amendments to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery and conferred citizenship and voting rights. They enlarged the scope of justice. But the scope of justice can shrink too, as we saw in Jim Crow.” In honor of her work on justice and conflict and her service to psychology, the American Psychological Association (APA) awarded Opotow the 2021 Presidential Citation. We sat down with her to learn more about her journey to John Jay, her love of teaching, and her scope of justice work.
“When the scope of justice widens, more groups of people are included as deserving fair treatment.” —Susan Opotow
Becoming What She Always Was
Opotow isn’t a professor who finished her undergraduate degree and then swiftly moved on to earn multiple graduate degrees. Instead, she had established a career in public schools before she entered higher education. “I was a teacher and I was a guidance counselor. I worked in elementary schools and high schools,” she says. “I really loved working with students. But, at one point, I decided it was time to do something with my brain as my work was increasingly being focused on record keeping. So, I went to graduate school.” Fortunately for Opotow, she found an amazing graduate school advisor in social psychology. “I didn’t realize it at first, but it’s what I always should have done. It was a delight to study individual, social, and societal individual dynamics that occur in changing contexts. Most psychology is attentive to the present, but social psychology combines the person and the environment together in ways that are dynamic, changing, and takes into account both the present and the past. That version of psychology really resonated for me.”
“Most psychology is attentive to the present, but social psychology combines the person and the environment together.” —Susan Opotow
Passing On Knowledge
Opotow didn’t exactly find John Jay. Instead, it found her. “I was teaching at UMass Boston when I received a letter out of the blue from John Jay that said, ‘The committee would like to meet with you,’” Opotow says. Luckily, she got the job and found that she shared a lot in common with John Jay students. “I was the first in my family to go to college, so many of their stories resonate with me.”
Oftentimes, even with her Senior Seminar courses, she starts the first day of class with a theory quiz. It’s not to grade students or surprise them. Quite the opposite, it’s to see where they are and to make sure that their college education is more complete. “If they didn’t know important sociology theories at that point, they need to learn it in my class. I didn’t want them to leave John Jay without that knowledge,” she says. “I want them to know how to write and read critically and capably, and relate all of that information to their studies and also to their lives going forward.”
“Other people’s goals for their work are beautiful to me. I want to enable them to get there.” —Susan Opotow
Opotow adores educating students and especially teaching theory. For her, theory is a roadmap for getting from point A to point B. “It’s understanding the relationships between related things and intervening factors, depending on how complex your model is. I love it when students suddenly start to see the things they’ve been concerned about articulated in theories, which then helps them articulate their ideas knowledgably, elegantly, and in ways that are helpful to them.”
When asked, “What do you want students to say after taking one of your classes?” Opotow didn’t hesitate with an answer. “If students tell me they’re excited about what they’re learning and they see an exciting route forward for themselves, then I’m thrilled.” She sees learning as a “co-learning process” and finds it exciting to hear what students want to study. “Students’ goals for their learning and future work are beautiful to me. I want to enable them to get there.”
Receiving the APA Presidential Citation
Opotow wasn’t anticipating receiving an APA Presidential Citation, but it felt good receiving it. “I’m very happy to work behind the scenes,” she says. “I like to see things get done. I never thought that my work would receive this kind of notice.” She had been attending a meeting where everyone present was involved in APA governance. “When the APA President Jennifer Kelly called my name for the Presidential Citation, I was like, ‘What! Me?’” After recovering from her surprise, Opotow realized that the award was a wonderful honor as it acknowledged years of scholarship and service that she had done in social psychology. “The APA is the professional association of my field. I’ve devoted time to APA and see the collective work we do in governance as very important. Though individual voices are important,” she says, “organizational voices can be even more effective in enabling constructive societal change.”
Reflecting on Her Work
Receiving the APA’s Presidential Citation gave Opotow a moment to reflect on her body of work. She’s immensely proud of the students she’s helped educate, thrilled to be a part of John Jay’s Sociology Department—“the intellectual knowledge in our department is incredible”—and she’s pleased to have written more than 70 journal articles and book chapters. But one accomplishment stands out in her mind. “I co-edited a book published two years ago, New York After 9/11. The book traces the aftereffects of 9/11 across various spheres of New York City. The chapters were written by expert authors from a range of disciplines who discuss what happened after 9/11 in important contexts for people in New York City—policing, public safety, public health, emergency evacuations in tall buildings, mental health, memorializing the past, and rebuilding Lower Manhattan after collective trauma. Working on the book clarified that every sphere of life in New York City was challenged by 9/11, and these challenges rippled out over time and continue to do so in the present. The book offers important information—stories, data, and micro-histories filled with challenges concerns, conflicts, and accomplishments. “I’m proud of that book because it contributes to our knowledge of what happened in the aftermath of that terrible time.” That is vital information that needs to be known.
