Joslyn Brenton

Specialties: Health & Illness; Intersectionality; Family; Qualitative Methods

About Me: I grew up in a rural town in Maine. I had never heard of sociology until I took a course my first year of college. I soon switched my major! After I finished college, I spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. While there, I became fascinated with how other cultures view the body and medicine. Today I study and teach about health and illness (among other things). I see the classroom as a transformative space for students and for myself. In my courses I focus on how multiple inequalities (e.g., race, class, and gender) shape the way people think about and experience health and illness. I love when students ask questions, as I think this is an essential component of learning. In my course we examine questions like: Is health a basic human right? Who has the power to define what health and illness mean? Is Western medicine better than other health practices that have existed for thousands of years? I look forward to seeing you in my classroom!

Education:

Ph.D. (2014) North Carolina State University
M.S. (2008) North Carolina State University
B.A. (2001) University of Maine

Courses:

Introduction to Sociology
Sociology of Health & Illness
Health & the Family
Global Perspectives on Health
Feminism, Food, and Health
Qualitative Research Methods
Brains, Besties, and Bodies: Being a Woman in College (Ithaca First-Year Seminar)

Research Areas:

Health & Illness
Intersectionality
Family
Qualitative Methods

Publications

Book

Bowen, Sarah, Joslyn Brenton and Sinikka Elliott. 2019. Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Book Reviews:

The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/eat-food-all-the-time-mostly-junk/588052/
Pacific Standard: https://psmag.com/magazine/the-limits-of-home-cooking
Gastronimica: https://gcfs.ucpress.edu/content/19/3/96
Food, Culture & Society : https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15528014.2019.1658155?journalCode=rffc20

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

Elliott, Sinikka, Joslyn Brenton, and Rachel Powell. 2018. “Brothermothering: Gender, Power, and the Parenting Strategies of Low-Income Black Single Mothers of Teenagers.” Social Problems 65(4): 439-455.
Brenton, Joslyn. 2017. “The Limits of Intensive Feeding: Maternal Foodwork at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender.” Sociology of Health & Illness 39(6): 863-877.
Elliott, Sinikka, Rachel Powell, and Joslyn Brenton. 2015. “Being a Good Mom: Low-Income Black Single Mothers Negotiate Intensive Mothering.” Journal of Family Issues 36(3): 351:370.
Bowen, Sarah, Sinikka Elliott, and Joslyn Brenton. 2014. "The Joy of Cooking?" Contexts. http://ctx.sagepub.com/content/13/3/20.full
Brenton, Joslyn and Sinikka Elliott. 2014. "Undoing Gender? The Case of Complementary and Alternative Medicine." Sociology of Health and Illness 36(1): 91-107.

Select Media:

Print News:

The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/pressure-cooker-home-cooked-meal/583876/
Civil Eats: https://civileats.com/2019/03/01/more-time-in-the-kitchen-may-not-be-the-answer-to-feeding-kids-well/
Pacific Standard: https://psmag.com/magazine/the-limits-of-home-cooking
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/joslyn-brenton
New York Times: http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/when-family-dinner-doesnt-satisfy/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Slate: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/03/home_cooked_family_dinners_a_major_burden_for_working_mothers.html
PBS Newshour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/study-finds-home-cooking-disproportionately-burdens-mothers/

Radio / Podcast:

GRAVY: https://www.southernfoodways.org/gravy/home-cooked-expectations-dinner-under-pressure/
Radio New Zealand: https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018681841/myths-around-family-bonding
The Oxford Comment: https://soundcloud.com/oupacademic/the-politics-of-food-episode-50-the-oxford-comment