American Families in the 21st Century
SOC3-5b-Tue3
Nancy Marshall
This course will take place in person at 60 Turner Street. The room will be equipped with a HEPA air purifier.
April 22 - May 20
American families in the 21st century are both very different from the families of 50 years ago - and very much the same. We’ll explore what makes a family these days, and what are some of the challenges and joys that families experience - as parents, grandparents, siblings, or other family ties. This course will bring together some of the latest ideas from sociology about families and kinship, and weave that together with our lived experiences to support our reflections and expand our knowledge of our world and ourselves.
Stephanie Coontz, in The Way We Never Were, argued that the nostalgic view we have of the families of the 1950s doesn’t reflect the reality then, and gets in the way of what we expect of families now. In Random Families, Rosanna Hertz and Margaret Nelson explore the ways in which DNA does, and doesn’t, shape who we consider family in the 21st century. Using our own family photos, we’ll explore these ideas about what it means to be family. In later course sessions, we’ll explore ideas about kinship - the cousins, grand-uncles and others on our family tree. From there, we’ll consider how 21st century families - blended families, single parents, same-sex couple families - challenge or expand our understanding of family and kinship. Finally, we’ll conclude with two sessions on parenting and grandparenting in the 21st century - what are the joys and challenges we face, in part because of these changing ideas about family and kinship?
More facilitated discussion than lecture.
All materials will be provided on a class website, including relevant excerpts from the books referenced in the Course Description.
Anticipated preparation time is 1-2 hours for each class.
Nancy Marshall is currently teaching Sociology of Families & Kinship at Brandeis University. Prior to coming to Brandeis, she taught Sociology courses in the Women’s & Gender Studies department at Wellesley College. She has published extensively on combining work and family and on child care for young children.