Sociologist to discuss significance of stuff

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – March 17, 2015) An expert on contemporary family life will discuss the significance of objects and spaces in the home on Tuesday, April 7, at California Lutheran University.

Sociologist Michelle Janning will present “The Stuff of Family Life: Gender, Identity and Politics in Homes” at 7 p.m. in rooms 101-102 of the Swenson Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Janning will show how everyday home objects and spaces signify roles, relationships and inequalities that are part of our public world, with a particular emphasis on gender and social class. She has spent nearly 20 years conducting interdisciplinary research in the fields of design, material culture, consumerism, social psychology and human-computer interaction and has concluded that the private realm tells us much about the public realm and the personal is political.

She is co-chairwoman of the board of directors for the Council of Contemporary Families, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best-practice findings about American families.

Her writings include “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, “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.

Janning is a professor of sociology at Whitman College in Washington where her main teaching interests are family, gender, childhood, culture, popular culture, community-based research and education. She is listed as one of the Sloan Foundation’s Work-Family Leaders. She served as a visiting researcher at the University of York’s Centre for Women’s Studies, a visiting professor in sociology at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad and a Fulbright Specialist Scholar. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology with a concentration in women’s studies from St. Olaf College and a master’s and doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame.

The Swenson Center is located at the corner of Faculty Street and Pioneer Street on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Cal Lutheran’s Center for Equality and Justice (CEJ), sociology and political science departments and Gender Studies Program are sponsoring the free lecture. For more information, contact the CEJ at 805-493-3694 or CEJ@callutheran.edu.