
Professor of Sociology, Whitman College
Phone:
509-527-4952
Email:
janninmy@whitman.edu
Topics of Expertise:
Children / Gender & Sexuality / Parenthood: Motherhood/Fatherhood / Work & Family
Michelle Janning is Chair of the Council on Contemporary Families Board of Directors, and Professor of Sociology at Whitman College. Her research focuses on the intersections of material culture and spaces with family relations, including work on divorce, work and family boundaries, gender roles, and romantic communication.
She is the author or co-author of articles and chapters primarily on the intersections of families and material and popular culture, including “Love Letters Lost? Gender and the Preservation of Digital and Paper Communication from Romantic Relationships” in Family Communication in an Age of Digital and Social Media (edited by Carol J. Bruess), “Spatial and Temporal Arrangements, Parental Authority, and Young Adults’ Post-Divorce Experiences” in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage,” “The Stuff at Mom’s House and the Stuff at Dad’s House: The Material Consumption of Divorce for Adolescents” in Childhood and Consumer Culture, “The Efficacy of Symbolic Work-Family Integration For Married Professionals Who Share Paid Work” in the Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, “I Would Never Do That in My Own Home: Audience Reflexivity and the Decorating Television Viewing Culture” in the Electronic Journal of Sociology, and “Put Yourself in My Work Shoes: Variations in Work-Related Spousal Support for Professional Married Co-Workers” in the Journal of Family Issues. She guest edited an issue of the Journal of Family Issues on “Spaces and Places of Family Life: Cultural and Popular Cultural Representations of Homes and Families.” In addition to her work on these topics, she also researches gender and sport, interpersonal relationships among college students, and community-based research on families, children, and early learning.