Megan Lynn McCormick, A.M.

Hi! My name is Megan (she/her/hers), and I'm a doctoral student in the Community Research and Action program at Vanderbilt University. I engage participatory and place-based approaches to explore young people’s relationships with their places, particularly their neighborhoods, schools, and third places. My current research focuses on youth-led transformation processes and youth experiences of exclusion from civic life and public space. I seek to partner with young people to resist place-based harm, anti-youth ageism, and other forms of systemic oppression. I am an interdisciplinary scholar, and my current work speaks most closely with urban studies, human development, and human geography.

I received my BA in Communication from Denison University and my AM (MSW equivalent) from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Prior to starting my PhD, I spent 8 years in K-12 schools settings in Chicago as a youth development professional and then social worker. My training and experiences as a social worker in school settings deeply inform my current partnered research and teaching.

In my time outside of doctoral study, I sing in a queer and queer-allied choir called Nashville in Harmony. I love hiking with my wife Emma and listening to a steady rotation of audiobooks and podcasts (I've got some good recs, I think. Ask me about them!). I'm happiest at a coffee shop, brewery, or pizza spot with people I love, walking my pup, Stevie, in my neighborhood, and taking care of my ever-growing collection of houseplants.