Professor Godwyn teaches introductory and advanced courses in Sociology, Women's Studies, Gender Studies and the History and Society Foundation course. She has lectured at Harvard University and taught at Brandeis University and Lasell College, where she was also the Director of the Donahue Institute for Public Values.

Professor Godwyn focuses on social theory as it applies to issues of inequality. Within the field of sociology, her areas of expertise include Critical and Classical theory, Feminist Theory and the Sociology of Entrepreneurship. Professor Godwyn studies entrepreneurship as a vehicle for social change through the economic and political advancement of marginalized populations, especially women and ethnic minorities. She has published in journals such as Symbolic Interaction, Current Perspectives in Social Theory and the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In 2008, her business ethics case, Hugh Connerty and Hooters: What is Successful Entrepreneurship? won the Dark Side Case Competition sponsored by the Critical Management Studies Interest Group and the Management Education Division of the Academy of Management.