UC Berkeley professor to speak on families

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 15, 2007

PROVO -- Ann Swidler, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, will present a lecture Thursday at Brigham Young University titled "Fighting for the American Family: Families in the Crosshairs of the Culture Wars."

The lecture is sponsored by the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Chair in Social Work and the Social Sciences and will be presented in Room B002 of the Joseph F. Smith Building from 3 to 4 p.m. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend.

Swidler studies the interplay of culture and institutions and how people use culture and how it shapes social life. Until recently, her work has focused on American culture, especially the culture of love and marriage. She is partnered with colleagues from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in a project to understand the societal determinants of human health and well-being.

Swidler earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, where she now teaches sociology of culture, sociology of religion and sociological theory. She is the co-author of the widely read "Habits of the Heart" and "The Good Society."

For more information, contact Kimberli Gibson at 801-422-1320.