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I teach courses about gender, youth, education, social problems, and research methods, and I am the residential house professor for Allen House . My book Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success ( The University of Chicago Press ) explores how undergraduates' friendships help and hinder their success during and after college. In my forthcoming book, Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks (The University of Chicago Press, 2025), I investigate students' friendship networks at three types of institutions (a community college, a liberal arts college, and a research university) to better understand differences and similarities in how students make and keep friends as well as how their friendship networks help and hinder their academic and social success. Broadly, my work focuses on inequalities, identities, and networks, particularly among students.
To find out more, read my Washinton Post OpEd "Want to succeed in college? Spend more time playing video games with friends" or my NBC OpEd "How to hold on to the adult friends you value - and let go of those you don't," or listen to my interview on NPR's 1A "Why Female Friendships Matter" or "The Evolution of Friendship Amidst COVID-19" on NHPR's The Exchange.
Here are two handouts that I give out in talks - a summary of Connecting in College and the "What Friendship Network Type Are You?" Quiz .
Estéfani Marín and Janice McCabe. 2024. "Is Belonging What You Do, Who You're With, or Who You Are? Three Pathways of Belonging among Latina/o Co-Ethnics at a Predominantly White Institution." Journal of Latinos in Education . 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2024.2396922
Janice McCabe. 2023. "Friendships and Student Success in College." Journal of Postsecondary Student Success 2(3):1-18. doi: 10.33009/fsop_jpss132950
Janice McCabe. 2022. "Peer Relations and Friendship among Postsecondary Students." Pp. 130-142 in Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education, second edition, edited by James Côté and Sarah Pickard. London and New York: Routledge.
Jennifer J. Lee and Janice McCabe. 2021. "Who Speaks and Who Listens: Revisiting the Chilly Climate in College Classrooms." Gender & Society 35(1):1-29. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891243220977141
Janice McCabe. 2020. "Why Study with Friends?: A Relational Analysis of Students' Strategies to Integrate Social and Academic Life." Pp. 135-156 in Relational Sociology and Research on Schools, Colleges, and Universities, edited by William G. Tierney and Suneal Kolluri. Albany: SUNY Press.
Janice McCabe. 2016. Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press . * * Reviewed in Contemporary Sociology , Journal of College Student Development and British Journal of Educational Studies . * * Honorable Mention for the Midwest Sociological Society's 2018 Distinguished Book Award.
Janice McCabe .2018. "Activism and the Academy: Q&A with Cornel West." Contexts 17(3):10-11. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504218792520
Douglas Schrock, Janice McCabe, and Christian Vaccaro. 2018. "Narrative Manhood Acts: Batterer Intervention Program Graduates' Tragic Relationships." Symbolic Interaction 41(3):384-410. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/symb.340
Janice McCabe .2017. "What Is Sociology?" Pp. 306-315 in What Are The Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious , edited by Daniel Rockmore. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England.
Janice McCabe and Brandon A. Jackson. 2016. "Pathways to Financing College: Race and Class in Students' Narratives of Paying for School." Social Currents 3(4): 367-385. doi:10.1177/2329496516636404 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2329496516636404
Janice McCabe. 2016. "Friends With Academic Benefits." Contexts 15(3):22-29 . http://ctx.sagepub.com/content/15/3/22?etoc
Amanda Koontz Anthony and Janice McCabe. 2015. "Friendship Talk as Identity Work: Defining the Self through Friend Relationships." Symbolic Interaction 38(1):64-82. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/symb.138/abstract
Janice McCabe. 2015. "'That's What Makes Our Friendships Stronger': Supportive Friendships Based on Racial Solidarity and Racial Diversity." Pp. 64-79 in College Students' Experiences of Power and Marginality: Sharing Spaces and Negotiating Differences , edited by Elizabeth M. Lee and Chaise LaDousa. New York: Routledge. http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9781138785557/
Janice McCabe. 2013. "Making Theory Relevant: The Gender Attitude and Belief Inventory." Teaching Sociology 41(3):282-293. doi: 10.1177/0092055X13480153. http://tso.sagepub.com/content/41/3/282
Supplemental information available at: http://janicemccabe.net/gabi/
Koji Ueno, Eric R. Wright, Matthew Gayman, and Janice McCabe. 2012. "Segregation in Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth's Personal Networks: Testing Structural Constraint, Choice Homophily, and Compartmentalization Hypotheses." Social Forces 90(3):971-991. http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/3/971.abstract
Christian Vaccaro, Douglas Schrock, and Janice McCabe. 2011. "Managing Emotional Manhood: Fighting and Fostering Fear in Mixed Martial Arts." Social Psychology Quarterly 74(4):414-437. http://spq.sagepub.com/content/74/4/414.abstract
Janice McCabe. 2011. "Doing Multiculturalism: An Interactionist Analysis of the Practices of a Multicultural Sorority." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 40(5):521-549. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891241611403588
Janice McCabe, Emily Fairchild, Liz Grauerholz, Bernice Pescosolido, and Daniel Tope. 2011. "Gender in Twentieth-Century Children's Books: Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central Characters." Gender & Society 25(2):197-226. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243211398358
Janice McCabe. 2009. "Racial and Gender Microaggressions on a Predominantly-White Campus: Experiences of Black, Latina/o and White Undergraduates." Race, Gender and Class 16(1):133-151. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41658864
Keynote, Residential College Symposium , October 2023, Virginia Tech.
Keynote, "Connecting: The 2023 Division of Student Affairs Professional Development Day," November 2023, Dartmouth College.
"Designing Friendships: Fostering Friendships and Social Connections."
- Invited Presentation at the American College Health Association (ACHA) Innovations Summit, "Inspiring Hope & Real Solutions to Address College Mental Health and Well-Being," October 2019, College Park, Maryland.
- South Carolina College Personnel Association's Fall Virtual Drive-In Conference . Afternoon Keynote Address. October 2020.
"Friends with Academic Benefits: Tight-Knitters, Compartmentalizers, and Samplers."
- Vermont Humanities, First Wednesday , Ilsley Public Library, December 2020.
- University of Maryland, Department of Sociology, October 2019
- University of New Hampshire, Department of Sociology, October 2018
- University of Pennsylvania, Education & Inequality Seminar, January 2017
- Temple University, Department of Sociology, January 2017
"Understanding Your Network of Friends." Public Lecture to Kick Off "Friends" Series, Office of Health Promotion, Boston College , Boston, Massachusetts, October 2017.
"Networks of Success: How Friendships Matter for College and Beyond." Class Officers Weekend, Dartmouth College. September 2017.
"Friends and Microaggressions: How Friendship Networks Support Students." Davidson College, October 2014, Davidson, North Carolina.
"Community in Student Friendships: Tight-knitters, Compartmentalizers, and Samplers." Part of OPAL and Student Assembly's "Week in Community," October 2013, Dartmouth College.
Keynote Speaker, Bowling Green State University Women's Studies Research Symposium, March 2011, Bowling Green, Ohio.
Selected media coverage of my research:
FRIENDSHIP:
Washington Post OpEd: Want to Succeed in College? Spend More Time Playing Video Games with Friends
Time magazine: How To Make Friends as an Adult and Why It's Important
NPR: How College Friendships May Affect Academic Success
USA Today: It's not me, it's Netflix: With password sharing on the block, how to boot your friends
BBC: Can Gen Z make friends in the pandemic era?
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Friendships and Their Influence on Academic Success
Quartz: The Sociological Argument for Breaking Up With Bad Friends
Boston Globe: What Kind of Friend Are You?
NBC News: These Are the Types of Friendships That Exist - And How They Impact GPA
Inside Higher Ed: Friends With (Academic) Benefits
NY Mag: Here Are The Three Types of Friendship Networks
Quartz: An Ivy League Professor Says There Are Only Three Types of Friendships We Make
Mental Floss: Most People's Friendships Fall Into One of Three Categories
CNBC: How To Decide If You Should Transfer to Another College
GENDER ATTITUDE AND BELIEF INVENTORY (GABI):
Teaching Sociology podcast: : http://tso.sagepub.com/content/41/3/282/suppl/DC1
GENDER IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS:
The Telegraph: 5 literary heroines to inspire girls this international women's day
New York Times: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/new-study-finds-gender-bias-in-childrens-books/?_r=0
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/06/gender-imbalance-children-s-literature
Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/14078-males-dominate-childrens-books.html
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/06/study-suggests-winnie-pooh-isnt-gender-equal-does-matter/
San Francisco Chronicle: http://blog.sfgate.com/mmagowan/2011/05/16/new-study-reports-huge-gender-imbalance-in-kidlit/
Other Interviews:
Valley News: Dartmouth College weighs admissions preference for legacy students, push for diversity
Credit Suisse 2014 Youth Barometer: https://www.credit-suisse.com/us/en/about-us/corporate-responsibility/news/barometer/youth-barometer.article.html/article/pwp/news-and-expertise/2014/10/en/it-is-not-easy-to-escape.html
Allen House's New House Professor: Janice McCabe
Alternative Spring Break trip "Place, Story and Inequality in New Orleans"