BIOGRAPHY: 

• Kathleen C. Charmaz is a Professor of Sociology and the coordinator of the faculty writing program at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.

• She completed her dissertation at the University of California, San Francisco. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in occupational therapy from the University of California, San Francisco in 1973. After working in physical rehabilitation for many years she did a master’s degree to qualify her to teach occupational therapy.

• As a young child she suffered from constant respiratory infections and hemorrhaging after she had had a tonsillectomy. This is a reason for why she pursued an interest in health professions.

• Her areas of teaching range in social psychology, heath and illness, death and dying, qualitative methods, grounded theory, the study of academic writing and many others. 

• She has written or co-edited five books and has published many articles and chapters on; the experience of chronic illness, the social psychology of suffering, writing for publication, grounded theory and qualitative research. She is one of five co-authors of her most recent book Developing Grounded Theory: The Second Generation (2007).