I study families and intimate relationships, everyday life, homes and design, inequalities, education, community-based projects, childhood and parenthood, gender, and popular culture. At every stage of my research, I involve undergraduate students from Whitman College.
My sociological research includes interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical nods to culture and material culture studies, media studies, social psychology, technology research, geography, design and architecture research, applied sociology, and consumption studies.
Besides my books, here are a few representative shorter peer-reviewed publications:
Janning, Michelle, Julian Landau, Jess Lilly, Ruby Matthews, and Kaia Roast. 2022. “Coming Home to College: Living Arrangements and Perceptions of Adulthood for U.S. College Students during COVID-19.” Cogent Social Sciences.
Janning, Michelle, Alissa Cordner, Zidane Galant-LaPorte, and Lucy Rosenberg. 2021. “Is the Pandemic Personal or Political? The Influence of Demographics and Risk Proximity on Attitudes toward COVID-19 Policy in Washington State.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.
McConnell, Eileen Diaz, Neal Christopherson, and Michelle Janning. 2021. “We’ve Come a Long Way, But We Could be Doing Better: Gendered Commentary in U.S. Media Coverage of the 1999 and 2019 Women’s World Cup.” Sociology of Sport Journal.
Janning, Michelle. 2020. “Displaying Childhood and Parenthood in Everyday Family Spaces: Linking Theory, Research, and Pedagogy.” In (Sam Frankel and Sally McNamee, eds.) Sociological Studies of Children and Youth Volume 25(A): Bringing Children back into the Family: Relationality and Connectedness: Interpreting Child-Adult/Adult-Child Positioning within the Home. Emerald Publishing.
Janning, Michelle. 2019. “Parenting in the Age of Apps and Mommy Blogs.” Pp. 67-89 in Michelle Janning (ed.) Contemporary Parenting and Parenthood: From News Headlines to New Research. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO.
Janning, Michelle, and Maya Volk. 2017. “Where the Heart is: Home Space Transitions for Residential College Students.” Children’s Geographies.
Janning, Michelle, Wenjun Gao, and Emma Snyder. 2017. “Love Letters in the Digital Age: Meaningfulness in Long-Distance Romantic Relationship Communication Formats.” Journal of Family Issues.
Janning, Michelle, and Neal Christopherson. 2015. “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. New York: Peter Lang International.
Janning, Michelle, and Helle Rytkønen. 2015. “Danish Families.” Entry for the Encyclopedia of Family Studies. Wiley-Blackwell.
Janning, Michelle, and Helen Brambrink (Scalise). 2013. “Gender and Intensive Mothering in Home Curation of Family Photography.” Journal of Family Issues.
Janning, Michelle, Caitlyn Collins, and Jacqueline Kamm. 2011. “Gender, Space and Material Culture in Divorced Families.” Michigan Family Review. (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfr/).
Janning, Michelle, Jill Laney, and Caitlyn Collins. 2010. “Spatial and Temporal Arrangements, Parental Authority, and Young Adults’ Post-Divorce Experiences.” Journal of Divorce and Remarriage 51: 413-427.
Guzman, Cirila Estela Vasquez, Gilbert Mireles, Neal Christopherson, and Michelle Janning. 2010. “Class and Race Health Disparities and Health Information Seeking Behaviors: The Role of Social Capital.” Research in the Sociology of Health Care 28: 127-149.
Collins, Caitlyn, and Michelle Janning. 2010. “The Stuff at Mom’s House and the Stuff at Dad’s House: The Material Consumption of Divorce for Adolescents.” Pp. 163-177 in Childhood and Consumer Culture, Edited by David Buckingham and Vebjørg Tingstad. Palgrave Publishers.
Janning, Michelle. 2009. “The Efficacy of Symbolic Work-Family Integration For Married Professionals Who Share Paid Work.” Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 3(1).
Janning, Michelle. 2008. “Spousal Supports Provided by Employers.” Entry for the Sloan Work-Family Encyclopedia.
Janning, Michelle. 2008. Guest Editor for Special Issue of Journal of Family Issues 29(4), titled “Spaces and Places of Family Life: Cultural and Popular Cultural Representations of Homes and Families.”
Janning, Michelle, and Lindsey Menard. 2006. “I Would Never Do That in My Own Home: Audience Reflexivity and the Decorating Television Viewing Culture.” Electronic Journal of Sociology 10.
Janning, Michelle, and Brooke Neely. 2006. “Work-Family Integration for Professional Married Co-Workers: An Examination of Cross-Realm Conversations.” International Journal of Sociology of the Family 32(1): 79-86.
Janning, Michelle. 2006. “Put Yourself in My Work Shoes: Variations in Work-Related Spousal Support for Professional Married Co-Workers.” Journal of Family Issues 27(1): 85-109.
Christopherson, Neal, Michelle Janning, and Eileen McConnell (authors listed alphabetically). 2002. “Two Kicks Forward, One Kick Back: A Content Analysis of Media Discourses on the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship.” Sociology of Sport Journal 19: 170-188.
Michelle Janning, Ph.D. 