Joslyn Brenton

Joslyn Brenton

Associate Professor & Department Chair- Sociology, Sociology
School: School of Humanities and Sciences
Office: #214 Muller Faculty Center, Ithaca, NY 14850
Specialty: Health & Illness; Intersectionality; Family; Qualitative Methods

Education:

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

Interests:

My research examines how inequality shapes family health. As a qualitative scholar, my early research focused on family foodwork. Drawing on ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with mothers raising young children, I examined how class, race, and gender inequality converge at the modern dinner table. This research resulted in a 2019 co-authored book Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It, which contributed to local, national, and international conversations around power and food. More recently, my research interests include defining and examining processes around food dignity, as well as examining how couples raising young children navigate the work of keeping families healthy. My research is informed both by my formal training as well as my experiences growing up as a member of the working-class in rural Maine. 

My research informs my teaching. In addition to teaching core curricular classes such as Introduction to Sociology and Qualitative Methods, I teach classes on the Sociology of health & Illness, Health & the Family, and Feminism, Food and Health. My love for reading and imagining new social possibilities led to the creation of a course entitled Society in Science Fiction.  

Select Publications

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. 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

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