Recent Distinguished Visitors

Professor Brian Powell

 
Professor Brian Powell
Allen D. & Polly S. Grimshaw Professor of Sociology
Indiana University
Time & Place Monday, November 6, 11:30 a.m., 519 Bellamy (Nimkoff Conference Room, Sociology Department)

"God, Genes, and Gays: Views Regarding Children’s Development and Definitions of 'Family'”

Debates over the meaning of “family” increasingly have become a central focus of academic scholarship, the culture wars, and contemporary politics. It, therefore, is puzzling that we know so little about how the public defines the family and creates boundaries distinguishing families from “non-families.” Professor Powell presents results of a national study in which adults were interviewed about their stances regarding same-sex couples, cohabiting couples, gay marriage, gay adoption, and, most importantly, what counts as family. In this presentation, Powell identifies the extent to which these attitudes vary along sociodemographic lines, are intertwined with religious and gender ideology, and are linked to the beliefs regarding the role of parenting, genetics, and other factors in shaping children’s behaviors and traits. In examining how Americans are making sense of, and in some cases are struggling with, changes in living arrangements in the United States, Powell make predictions regarding the likely changes in Americans’ definitions over the next decade. He also discusses how findings from this study should compel sociologists to reevaluate some of their own assumptions regarding family, gender, and the fundamental causes of human behavior.

Brian Powell is the Allen D. and Polly S. Grimshaw Professor of Sociology at Indiana University. His research interests have focused on sociology of the family, sociology of education, gender, and social psychology. Recent work has explored how structural and compositional features of the family (e.g., parental age, adoptive vs. biological parents, one vs. two-parent households) influence parental investments in children, gender differences in emotional responses to inequity in household division of labor, and contemporary social constructions of “family.” He currently is completing a book tentatively titled, Who Counts as Kin? How Americans Define ‘Family.’

Professor Michael Messner

 
Professor Michael Messner
Sociologists for Women in Society Distinguished Feminist Lecturer 2006
Department of Sociology
University of Southern California
Time & Place TBA: 519 Bellamy, mid-February 2007

"Gender at the Helm: Women and Men Coaches in Youth Sports"

Michael Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. He currently chairs the sociology department, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on sex and gender, masculinities, and sport. His books include Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements (1997), Paradoxes of Youth and Sport (March, 2002), and Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports (August, 2002). He was named Distinguished Feminist Lecturer for 2006-2007 by the Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS).