Final Conference Program
The 2024 conference theme is Big Questions in Work-Family, which will be part of a two-year agenda. These are the cutting-edge global questions that are not yet fully answered or recognized, including:
CHANGES IN WORK – What are the meanings of work at different life stages, for different groups, and in different kinds of jobs? How is work organized? What is the future of work and for whom?
CHANGES IN FAMILY LIFE – How are families and family experiences changing around the globe and what changes might we expect? For example, fertility rates are declining in high-income countries and there are reports of an epidemic of loneliness. What other changes are evident and what are the implications?
CHANGES IN WORK-LIFE INTERFACE: What theories, concepts, and measures best explain new and emerging intersections between work and family?
THE LIFE COURSE – How do changes in work and family impact children and their capacities to enter adult roles, for adults to successfully navigate transitions, and for older populations to age well?
SOLUTIONS AND PROMISING PRACTICES – What are the most promising solutions in policy and practice in the global north and south? What are the challenges and best opportunities for advancing equity and social justice?
The conference’s objective is to chart an agenda for the future of work-family research, policy and practice. In addition to sharing new research and seeking answers to big questions, this is a working conference, fostering active participation and connectivity among diverse groups. We anticipate more than 500 work-family stakeholders in attendance and a dynamic program centered on meaningful exchange. There will be numerous events to connect a global community of scholars with thought leaders in media, philanthropy, practice, policy, and social change.
With excitement about the years ahead,
Ellen Galinsky, WFRN President
Registration reception will be on the first floor atrium of the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) also known as the “MB building” located at 1450 Guy Street Montreal, Quebec Canada. The registration desk will be open Wednesday 9am-5pm, Thursday 8am-5pm, Friday 8am-5pm, and Saturday 8am-1:30pm.
Coffee and snack stations are located in the MB Atrium 1st floor and MB 3rd floor throughout the conference. Additional coffee and snacks will be provided in MB9 (9th floor) concurrent with poster presentations on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
WIFI
WIFI is available to all conference delegates. To access WIFI you will need to self-register to the Concordia University wireless network via these instructions: CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Use the network: ConcordiaGuest
Use the access code (case sensitive): WAC-wfrn24
Childcare
Childcare is available on Thursday and Friday 8am-5pm to those who have pre-registered for these services. The childcare room is located at MB9D.
Breastfeeding and Private Space
We have reserved a private space for breastfeeding and for those in need of privacy to attend to other personal concerns. This is located in room MB 2.426. Kindly be considerate of others by knocking on the door. Please do not use this space not for other purposes (such as for office work).
Subha Barry, MBA, MS
Subha V. Barry is a C-suite leader and an Advisor who brings a unique perspective on the alignment of corporate culture to talent strategy and business results. As a transformational change agent, she has a proven record of identifying and accelerating new business creation, driving sales, and increasing profitability. She is president of Seramount, now part of EAB. Seramount is a strategic professional services firm dedicated to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Here, she drives the firm’s vision, strategy, and business development. Prior to Seramount, Subha was SVP and Chief Diversity Officer at Freddie Mac, where she served on the firm’s management committee and led their Foundation. During her 20+ years at Merrill Lynch, Subha was a Managing Director and the company’s first Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, driving strategy, infrastructure and execution with a lens on both global and local community. She has taught Gender Policy at Columbia University and speaks passionately about the ability to drive innovation by embracing diversity and creating a culture of inclusion. She serves on a number of boards aligned with her passions—education, cancer research, and women’s advancement.A native of India, Subha holds a BA from Bombay University and an MBA and MS in Accounting from Rice University. She enjoys golfing, reading poetry and rallying for social change. She has two grown children and lives in Naples, Florida and New Hope, PA with her husband.
Mary Blair-Loy, Ph.D.
Mary Blair-Loy is Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego (PhD, University of Chicago; MDiv, Harvard). She studies gender, work-family, and normative cultural models of a worthwhile life. Her award-winning book Misconceiving Merit (with Erin Cech) uses multiple types of evidence to show that cultural beliefs about merit in STEM professions are widely-embraced yet reinforce gender and race inequality and harm science. Her award-winning book Competing Devotions is recognized as a landmark in work-family research. She is a coauthor of the 2024 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report entitled, “Supporting Family Caregivers in STEMM: A Call to Action.”
Erin Cech, Ph.D.
Dr. Erin Cech (she/her) is Associate Professor of Sociology and Mechanical Engineering (by courtesy) at the University of Michigan. Her research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality in the US workforce. Cech’s work includes The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality (2021) and Misconceiving Merit: Paradoxes of Excellence and Devotion in Academic Science and Engineering (with M. Blair-Loy; 2022). Her research has been covered in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Time and has written for The Atlantic and Harvard Business Review. She was named one of Business Equality Magazine’s “40 LGBTQ+ Leaders Under 40.”
Heejung Chung, Ph.D.
Heejung Chung is Professor of Work and Employment at King’s College London. She is a comparative labour market researcher interested in the future of work, workers’ well-being, and gender equality. Her research aims to explore different issues of inequality and social justice around work and labour markets, and find policy solutions to tackle these problems. Her work has influenced policies at the international level – including the European Commission, ILO, UN and national levels – e.g. the UK, Korean, and German government. She is the author of the book The Flexibility Paradox: Why flexible working leads to (self-)exploitation (2022, Policy Press)
Andrea Doucet, Ph.D.
Andrea Doucet is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work, and Care, Professor in Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies at Brock University, and Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University and the University of Victoria. She is the author of the award-winning book Do Men Mother? (2006, 2018). Her current writing explores ecological care ethics and how to apply this to research on paid and unpaid work in diverse Canadian families, parental leaves and other care leaves, and knowledge-making processes. She is the Project Director and Principal Investigator of the Canadian SSHRC Partnership program, Reimagining Care/Work Policies and Co-Coordinator of the International Network of Leave Policies and Research
Kim French, Ph.D.
Dr. Kim French is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Colorado State University. She earned her PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from University of South Florida (2017). Her research focuses on how managing work and family affects the health and well-being of individuals and their family members. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the connection between work and physical and physiological health, workers' changing experiences over time, and supportive work and family systems.
Ellen Galinsky, MS
Ellen Galinsky is the President of Families and Work Institute (FWI) and the elected President of the Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN). She also serves as senior research advisor to AASA, the School Superintendent Organization. Previously, she served as the Chief Science Officer of the Bezos Family Foundation and as faculty at the Bank Street College of Education. Galinsky is the author of Mind in the Making, a best-selling book on early learning Her book on adolescence, The Breakthrough Years, was published in March 2024. She is also the author of 90 books/reports and 360 articles for books, academic journals, magazines, and the Web. Other career highlights include serving as the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, being elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, serving as parent expert in the Mister Rogers Talks with Parents series, and receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award from Vassar College as well as the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from WFRN.
Jarrod Haar, Ph.D.
Dr Jarrod Haar is Dean’s Chair and Professor of Management and Māori Business at Massey University (New Zealand). He has Māori tribal affiliations of Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Mahuta. He researches employees and organisations (especially Māori) including the role of technology. He has won industry and best-paper awards and won multiple research grants ($6.7m individually) plus is a named researcher on a $105m National Science Challenge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. He has 150 journal articles and has given 110 keynotes/invited presentations. He is a frequent media commentator and is ranked in the Elsevier World Top 2% of Scientists worldwide [by citations].
Yang Hu, Ph.D.
Yang Hu is Professor of Global Sociology at Lancaster University, UK. He obtained his PhD in Sociology as a Gates Scholar from the University of Cambridge, UK. Yang’s research focuses on family and work changes and inequalities in a global context. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), his recent and ongoing collaborative projects examine the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for work and family inequalities in a cross-national context. Yang is the author of the book Chinese-British Intermarriage – Disentangling Gender and Ethnicity. His recent work has been published in journals including Nature Human Behaviour, Gender & Society, and Journal of Marriage and Family, and has been covered by media outlets including The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC, and Channel News Asia. Yang is co-director of the Early Career Fellowship Program at the Work and Family Researchers Network. He is also a member of the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab.
Ameeta Jaga, Ph.D.
Ameeta Jaga (Ph.D.) is Professor of Organisational Psychology at the University of Cape Town and a non-resident fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research. She applies a Southern and decolonial approach to address the geopolitics of knowledge production, focusing on gender and social class analyses of work-family concerns, particularly among low-income mothers. Employing feminist methodologies like photovoice, her research aims for epistemic justice, impacting workplace breastfeeding support and policy enhancements for care work. Ameeta's work is published in Gender, Work and Organisation, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Journal of Applied Psychology.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ph.D.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders worldwide through teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations, governments, and start-up ventures. She co-founded the Harvard University-wide Advanced Leadership Initiative, guiding its planning from 2005 to its launch in 2008 and serving as Founding Chair and Director from 2008-2018 as it became a growing international model for a new stage of higher education preparing successful top leaders to apply their skills to national and global challenges. Author or co-author of 20 books, her latest book is Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time.
Ellen Ernst Kossek, Ph.D.
Ellen Ernst Kossek is the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor at Purdue University’s Daniels School of Business. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a BA from Mount Holyoke College. A leading social scientist and workplace expert, she served as the first elected President of the Work-Family Researchers Network and is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, and the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology. Dr. Kossek has many awards for research and service excellence to advance gender equality, inclusion, and work-life understanding in employing organizations and society. Her current research examines initiatives to advance work-life equality; improve the implementation of flexibility and work-family policies such as hybrid and remote working, and maternity/sick leaves; and the design and delivery of leadership and organizational interventions to help employers adapt the modern workplace and the future of work. She has also developed an assessment and training to help individuals and teams manage their work-life connectivity and boundary management styles. She recently served on a National Academy of Sciences expert study group on the need to enhance supportive policies and practices for supporting family caregivers working in science, engineering and medicine. A recent Harvard Business Review article on the future of flexibility was selected as a “must read” for 2023. Dr. Kossek has been invited to give talks to managers and students in many countries round the world. Prior to becoming a professor, she worked on human resource issues for major corporations in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Melissa Milkie, Ph.D.
Melissa Milkie is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, and Professor Emeritus at University of Maryland. She recently served as President of the Work and Family Researchers Network. Her research centers on gender, work-family conflicts, time use and mental health. She examines changing work structures and cultural landscapes that shape well-being at work and at home. Central to her scholarship is highlighting the complexities and social factors linked to how people spend their time and experience daily life. Dr. Milkie is currently writing the book Parents Under Pressure: How Mothers and Fathers Spend and Feel about Their Time.
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Ph.D.
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Ph.D., is the Canada Research Chair in Digital Regulation at Work and in Life at the University of Quebec in Montreal (ESG-UQAM). Her research examines digital technologies and the boundaries between work and life across different national contexts. She has published Living with Digital Surveillance in China. Citizens’ Narratives on Technology, Privacy, and Governance (Routledge, 2024) and over 75 chapters and articles in management, sociology, psychology, and information systems journals. She has received the Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research, is a founding member of WFRN and co-chairs the Technology, Work and Family research community.
Richard Petts, Ph.D.
Richard J. Petts is a Professor of Sociology at Ball State University. His research focuses on the intersection of family, work, gender, and policy, with a specific emphasis on parental leave, father involvement, and workplace flexibility as policies and practices that can reduce gender inequality, promote greater work-family balance, and improve family well-being. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Council on Contemporary Families and the Executive Board of the Work and Family Researchers Network. He has published extensively in academic journals, and his work has been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Forbes, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. You can learn more about his research by visiting his website (www.richardpetts.com).
Alejandra Ros Pilarz, Ph.D.
Alejandra Ros Pilarz is an assistant professor at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research agenda aims to improve the wellbeing of working families with low-incomes through policy-relevant research. Her research examines the effects of parental employment and children’s early care and education (ECE) contexts on family wellbeing and children’s development in early childhood. She also examines how child and family policies—including ECE policies, work-family policies, and income support policies—shape parents’ employment, children’s ECE contexts, and ultimately, influence child and family wellbeing.
Leah Ruppanner, Ph.D.
Leah Ruppanner is a Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab and Gender Equity Imitative at the University of Melbourne. She was awarded top in field for all of Australia for Gender Studies (2022 and 2023) and Sociology (2023). Ruppanner is a leading expert on the gender impacts of COVID-19 with work cited in top outlets - Demography, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Gender and Society. Her forthcoming book Drained offers a new understanding of the mental load and concrete solutions to tame its drain (Penguin Random House USA, Allen Unwin Australia, Atlantic Books UK). Her previous book Motherlands provides a typology of childcare and gender policies across US states (Temple). Ruppanner's research is regularly featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes and other international news outlets.
Scott Schieman, Ph.D.
Scott Schieman is Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. He is currently co-editor of Society and Mental Health, the flagship journal for the Sociology of Mental Health Section of the American Sociology Association. Professor Schieman studies trends in what people think and feel about work–and how they talk about it. He is especially interested in the ways that work shapes the sense of self and identity, status, and well-being. Since 2005, he has collected data from more than 40,000 workers in national surveys of the United States and Canada. Drawing upon decades of quantitative and qualitative evidence, his research tells the story about the quality of working life and its effects over time.
Brigid Schulte
Brigid Schulte is a journalist, think tank program director, keynote speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, gender and modern life, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time. Her latest book, Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life will be published in September 2024. She was an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine for and was part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She serves as the director of the Better Life Lab, the work-family justice and gender equity narrative change program at New America. She hosts the Better Life Lab podcast on Slate. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Slate, the Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, the Guardian, New York Magazine, Fast Company, and others.
Cali Williams Yost, MBA
For more than two decades, Cali Williams Yost has been a leading authority on high performance work flexibility. A visionary workplace futurist, strategist, and author, Yost is the Founder and CEO of the Flex+Strategy Group, a solutions company helping organizations unlock performance and engagement by reimagining how, when, and where work is done. Called “one of the most sophisticated thinkers” on the transformation of work by The New York Times, her commentary is frequently featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, USA TODAY, Marketplace, NBC Nightly News and CNN. Yost approaches flexible work transformation as a strategic business imperative. She codified her concepts in her books, Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, (Hachette), and Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You (Penguin Group). Yost graduated with honors from Columbia Business School where she’s noted as an alumnus “Changing the World.” In 2018, she was named one of the global management thinkers “On the Radar” by Thinkers50.
The Kathleen Christensen Dissertation Award
2024 Award Recipient: Tania Hutt
Nominator Kate Weisshaar writes: “Dr. Tania Hutt received her PhD in June 2023 in the Sociology department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Dr. Hutt’s dissertation, titled “A New Dimension of the Motherhood Penalty: Perceptions of Future Childbearing Risk,” proposes that our understanding of motherhood should be broadened to include perceptions of potential motherhood, in addition to current motherhood. This conceptualization has important implications for how we consider gender inequality in the labor market and within employment settings. Through a series of rigorous and highly innovative empirical studies, including two survey experiments, an audit study of employers, and in-depth interviews with mothers and employers, Dr. Hutt illustrates how employers’ anticipation of women becoming future mothers creates a unique form of inequality that is not solely related to gender or current parental status.” The Work and Family Researchers Network and the Society for Human Resource Management are honored to recognize the exceptional work of this recent doctoral recipient.
2024 Honorable Mention: Victoria Daniel
Nominator Yujie (Jessie) Zhan writes: “In addressing her doctoral dissertation “The Hidden Side of Work‐Family Boundary Management: Uncovering the Role of Cognitive Boundary Work and Boundary Context Questions, Dr. Daniel developed a theoretical model explaining how cognitive boundary work unfolds and how it relates to different performance and well-being outcomes for individual employees. In doing so, her dissertation studies are among the first to start bridging some important gaps in the work-family boundary literature. To address her research questions, Dr. Daniel conducted a qualitative study and three quantitative survey studies using different designs. Dr. Daniel analyzed data from two sources, posts from online discussion boards and text responses from open-ended survey questions, following a grounded theory approach. Through this inductive study, she identified four components of cognitive boundary work, including anticipating boundary needs, boundary planning, regulating boundary implementation, and adapting boundaries. She also identified the critical role of boundary context that shapes boundaries and impacts the amount of cognitive boundary work.” The Work and Family Researchers Network and the Society for Human Resource Management are honored to recognize the exceptional work of this recent doctoral recipient.
The Ellen Galinsky Generative Researcher Award
2024 Award Recipient: Erin Kelly
Nominator Melissa Milkie writes “Dr. Erin Kelly is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. She has had a profound impact on the work and family field through her influential work on schedule control, diversity and equity, and work redesign, and her commitment to bridging the boundaries across research, policy and practice….One stellar contribution of Dr. Kelly’s work is the generative concept of schedule control, dating back from about her time with the Work-Family Health Network. The concept of schedule control includes not only the time of day, but where people work and how much work they do. Moving the idea of flexibility forward to the importance of control for workers’ work and family wellbeing, Dr. Kelly and her collaborators have been pivotal in elevating the concept as a critical topic within the field….Dr. Kelly’s research on work redesign has played a vital role in advancing the discourse on workplace policies and practices, demonstrating through rigorous experimental and multi-method studies that it is indeed feasible to enact meaningful changes to address work-life challenges, reduce overload and burnout, and support overall worker well-being. Her work within the Work-Family Health Network and the award-winning 2020 book “Overload” stand as a testament to her commitment to building guiding work redesign studies, setting a standard for future research in the field….As part of the WFRN, Dr. Kelly has made important data sets, protocols, and measures available to other scholars: https://workfamilyhealthnetwork.org/data. The provision of important data sets, protocols, and measures through the Work-Family Health Network showcases her commitment to advancing collective knowledge within the academic community. Dr. Kelly has actively contributed to the generativity of work-family research into the public policy and practitioner setting. She has actively engaged with corporate and policy audiences, influencing workplace mental health and well-being frameworks. Dr. Kelly has a stellar research-for-action or research-to-practice project, which was cited repeatedly within the US Surgeon General’s framework for Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing. The Employer Toolkit tries to provide inspiration and guidance for employers of all sizes that want to consider work redesign approaches, including profiling research-based workplace changes focused on scheduling flexibility, scheduling predictability or stability, streamlining work to reduce the risk of burnout and work-family time strain, and increasing supervisors’ support for family and personal life.” The WFRN is honored to recognize the profound impact that Dr. Kelly has had on the work-family area of inquiry.
WFRN Lifetime Achievement Award
2024 Award Co-Recipient: Jeffrey Greenhaus
The WFRN is delighted to recognize Jeffrey Greenhaus as co-recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nominator Tammy Allen writes “Without a doubt, Dr. Greenhaus is an extraordinary scholar. With 96 peer-reviewed journal publications, 11 books, and 41 book chapters, he has been a profoundly important contributor to the work-family literature for over four decades. Moreover, his work has been published in the very best journals in the field (e.g., Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior).
Most importantly, Jeff’s work has played a major role in shaping the field of work and family research itself. An important example is his ground-breaking 1985 Academy of Management Review article on sources of conflict between work and family roles. This article established the foundation for the study of work-family conflict and is likely the most frequently cited article on work and family in the literature. According to Google Scholar, this article alone has been cited over 14,000 times. Not only has his research shaped the foundation for work-family conflict research upon which we could all build, his 2006 Academy of Management Review article on work-family enrichment has done the same for research on the positive interdependency between work and family roles (cited over 5500 times!).
Jeff has also made substantial contributions to work-family scholarship through his books. These monographs include Career Management for Life, now in its fifth edition (Routledge, 2019), Work and Family: Allies or Enemies? (Oxford University Press, 2000), Making Work and Family Work: From Hard Choices to Smart Choices (Routledge, 2017), and Advanced Introduction to Sustainable Careers (Elgar, 2022). He has also co-edited Integrating Work and Family: Challenges and Choices for a Changing World (Greenwood Publishing, 1997), the Encyclopedia of Career Development (Sage, 2006), and Expanding the Boundaries of Work-Family Research: A Vision for the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). As a result of their cumulative contributions to the field, Jeff, along with collaborator and close friend Gary Powell, were inaugural recipients of the Ellen Galinsky Generative Research Award at the 2018 WFRN conference.
Jeff is currently attempting to integrate the work-family literature with his long-term interest in career management. Building on his 2014 article with Ellen Kossek on “The contemporary career: A work-home perspective” (Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior), he is working with Gerry Callanan and Gary Powell on identifying the theoretical mechanisms by which individuals’ home life affects the sustainability of their career.
The quality and programmatic impact of Dr. Greenhaus’ work is second to none in the field of work and family.”
2024 Award Co-Recipient: Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
The WFRN is delighted to recognize Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth as co-recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nominator Stephen Sweet writes “Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth has provided important insights in understandings of work-family concerns in military careers. Many of her studies were among the first conducted of families during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, her team conducted the first nationally representative study of young children exposed to parental deployment, which revealed that boys born during deployments have significantly more peer difficulties than other boys six years later. Over her career, Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth has garnered over $80 million in funding, including sustained funding for the Military Family Research Institute, which she co-founded and directs, through approximately 100 grants for research, outreach and engagement from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health, as well as state government, private philanthropic organizations, and corporations. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth’s research portfolio is impressive, with over 120 refereed articles in leading journals, over 40 book chapters, and 10 authored or edited books.
A second overarching area of contribution is Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth’s scholarship on the links between workplace conditions and family functioning. Her research has significantly advanced knowledge about the impact of workplace characteristics, policies, and practices on workers and their families. In particular, she has studied how work environments impact worker well-being and family relationships, including relationships between spouses and between parents and children. Her prominence in the field was confirmed by her designation as one of the Top 10 Extraordinary Contributors to WorkFamily Research in the world through a research-based study.”
One of the most enduring and important contributions Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth has made to the work-family community is the highly visible recognition given to the research of other scholars, which speaks volumes to her commitment to the concerns central to the WFRN. In 1999, in partnership with the Boston College Center for Work and Family, Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth created the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research, an international award for the best study published in the peer-reviewed scientific press each year. Each year, the award competition recognizes the winner, finalists, and nominees for the award. Over the 25 years of its existence, over 300 articles with over 800 authors have been recognized.
Hugh Bainbridge
Rupashree Baral
Alexandra Beauregard
Erin Cech
Xi Wen Chan
Vanessa Conzon
Allison Daminger
Jennifer Faone
Peter Fugiel
Marc Grau Grau
Yang Hu
Karen Kramer
Katherina Kuschel
Jean-Charles Languilare
Prudence Mabaso
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre
Abigail Opoku Mensah
Kitha Mokomane
Berkay Ozcan
Gabrielle Pepin
Pascale Peters
Rachel Pettigrew
Alejandra Ros Pilarz
Jeremy Reynolds
Casey Scheibling
Claudia Sellmaier
Nora Spinks
Bianca Stumbitz
Marisa Young
Grand Reception Information
Conference delegates are welcomed to join together from 7pm-9pm on Thursday June 20 at the historic Windsor Ballrooms, located at 1170 rue Peel. The reception will provide open bar, hors d’ouevres and opportunity celebrate our vibrant community.
For directions to the Windsor Hotel using Goolge Maps, click here
Call for Papers
Following the WFRN 2024 Biennial Conference, presenters are encouraged to submit papers for consideration to a special issue of the journal Community, Work & Family, which will be edited by Ellen Galinsky, Tammy Allen and Krista Lynn Minnotte. The theme of the special issue will be Big Questions in Work-Family and submissions should be crafted to fit that thematic purpose. Below is the timeframe for the special issue:
- Deadline for submission of manuscripts: October 15, 2024
- First review process completed: January 31, 2025
- Revised manuscripts must be resubmitted by: April 1, 2025
- Second review process completed: July 1, 2025
- Revised manuscripts must be resubmitted by: October 1, 2025
- Publication of special issue: January 1, 2026 issue 1
Submission procedures will be posted after the 2024 conference.
Early Career Work and Family Fellowship Program
The Work and Family Researchers Network is committed to mentoring the next generation of work and family scholars. Our Early Career Fellowship Program provides support for recent doctoral recipients to advance their research, teaching, and long-term career prospects. By offering networked resources and consultation, we help promising new scholars move into tenure-track, tenured appointments and secure senior-level positions, as well as engage them with the work and family community of scholars. The WFRN provided a call for applications, which ended October 15, 2023, and anticipates a similar call in advance of the next biennial conference. WFRN Early Career Fellows Conference Program
The WFRN Welcomes 2024 Early Career Fellowship Recipients!
The WFRN’s Early Career Fellowship Program is co-directed by Nicole Denier and Yang Hu, who organized this year’s preconference and will guide the 2024 cohort moving forward. To date, 140 early career scholars have participated in this program, which is designed to deliver a variety of supports for advancement to secure senior-level positions, as well as assist attendance at the WFRN Conference. The call for applications for the 2024 fellowships yielded close to 70 applications. With thanks to the selection committee Renada Goldberg, Nicole Denier, and Yang Hu, we are delighted to announce this year’s fellowship recipients.
- Mariam Abouelenin, Ph.D., Lancaster University, UK
- Kwaku Abrefa Busia, Ph.D., Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
- Miriam Barcus, Ph.D., The State University of New York at Cortland, USA
- Sarah Bourdeau, Ph.D., University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada
- Haley Cobb, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, USA
- Vanessa Conzon, Ph.D., Boston College, USA
- LaToya Council, Ph.D., Lehigh University, USA
- Allison Daminger, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, USA
- Moses Dang, Ph.D., Teesside University, UK
- Victoria Daniel, Ph.D., York University, Canada
- Camille Desjardins, Ph.D., Renmin University, China
- Juliana de Castro Galvao, Ph.D., University of Oxford, UK
- Christina Hymer, Ph.D., University of Tennessee, USA
- Cynthia Halliday, Ph.D., The University of Texas at El Paso, USA
- Sidra Kamran, Ph.D., Lewis & Clark College, USA
- Nicole Kapelle, Ph.D., Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
- Thomas Lyttelton, Ph.D., Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
- Eunjeong Paek, Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
- Vedavati Patwardhan, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, USA
- Federica Querin, Ph.D., University of Bologna, Italy
- Harchand Ram, Ph.D., International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India
- Megan N. Reed, Ph.D., Emory University, USA
- Joseph Regina, Ph.D., Rutgers University, USA
- Laila Schmitt, Ph.D., LMU Munich, Germany
- Meredith Slopen, Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center, USA
- Haoming Song, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, USA
- Daniela R. Urbina Julio, Ph.D., University of Southern California, USA
- Lili Vargha, Ph.D., Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
- Mengyi Xu, Ph.D., Birmingham University, UK
Recipients represent a wide range of disciplines, including the fields of economics, human resources, management, human development, organizational science, public health, public policy, psychology, social work, demography, and sociology. This year’s Early Career Fellows (ECFs) are also internationally diverse—they either live on, or study the experiences of people living on, all six habitable continents. Fellowship recipients share a common interest in identifying connections and consequences of work and family arrangements, as well as working together to advance mutual career interests and goals.
The ECFs’ research programs address a wide variety of topics that include, gender and intersectional inequality, work-family conflict, spillover, crossover and boundary management, work-family dynamics over the life course, employee health, stress, and well-being, state and organizational-level family-related policies (parental leave, sick leave, child subsidies), cognitive labor and the mental load, remote work and teleworking, workplace EDI, care and domestic work, poverty, among other topics. As a group, this year’s ECFs share a passion for examining the experiences of traditionally under-studied groups in work-family research, including people with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, women of color, and families and workers in the Global South, as well as addressing pertinent challenges and opportunities, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalization, for work and family lives.
We welcome these scholars to the program and their participation in the Work and Family Researchers Network!
Contact Information
Nicole Denier, Ph.D. (nicole.denier@ualberta.ca) and Yang Hu, Ph.D. Yang Hu (yang.hu@lancaster.ac.uk) are Co-directors of the Early Career Work and Family Fellowship Program.
WFRN Global South Travel Awards
To maximize geographic diversity within the Global South, the WFRN Global South Travel Awards are intended to help scholars from economically-disadvantaged locales secure financial support to attend the WFRN’s biennial conference. Awards include a regular membership, conference registration, and reimbursement of $500 for travel expenses incurred (which can include hotels, food, flights, ground transportation, and visa fees).
We are pleased to announce the 2024 Award Recipients:
- Tapas Dey, International Institute for Population Sciences, India
- Mariam Gbajumo-Sheriff, Ph.D., Department of Employment Relations & Human Resource Management, University of Lagos, Nigeria
- Srinivas Goli, Ph.D., International Institute for Population Sciences, India
- Babul Hossain, International Institute for Population Sciences, India
- Tania Hutt, Ph.D. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile
- Harchand Ram, Ph.D., International Institute for Population Sciences, India
Thank you to Bianca Stumbitz, WFRN International Committee Chair, for leading the selection of decisions in 2024.
Early Career Fund
Sarah Damaske
Andrea Doucet
Kathleen Gerson
Marc Grau-Grau
Edward Hill
Lena Hipp
Jennifer Hook
Susan Lambert
Donna S. Lero
Yvonne Lott
Melissa Milkie
Krista Lynn Minnotte
Kelly Musick
Ipshita Pal
Sarah Patterson
Shirley Porterfield
Linda Quirke
Margaret Shackell
Sabrina L. Speights
Stephen Sweet
Soo Min TOH
Doruk Uysal Irak
Tanja van der Lippe
Mara Yerkes
Marisa Young
Awards Fund
Sarah Damaske
Kathleen Gerson
Marc Grau-Grau
Edward Hill
Lena Hipp
Jennifer Hook
Susan Lambert
Donna S. Lero
Yvonne Lott
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Melissa Milkie
Krista Lynn Minnotte
Kelly Musick
Ipshita Pal
Sarah Patterson
Shirley Porterfield
Susan Prentice
Linda Quirke
Liana Sayer
Margaret Shackell
Sabrina L. Speights
Stephen Sweet
Soo Min TOH
Doruk Uysal Irak
Tanja van der Lippe
Amy Wharton
Mara Yerkes
Marisa Young
Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research Fund
Kathleen Gerson
Jennifer Hook
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Kelly Musick
Susan Prentice
Linda Quirke
Liana Sayer
Stephen Sweet
Amy Wharton
BIPOC and Diversity Inclusion Funds
Kess Ballentine
Anna Borg
Eileen M. Brennan
Daniel L. Carlson
Erin A. Cech
Kelly D. Chandler
Heather Cluley Bar-Or
Sydney Rose Colussi
Sarah Damaske
Kim de Laat
Laura den Dulk
Sara Dorow
Alison Earle
Elizabeth Helen Eley
Sylvia Fuller
Kathleen Gerson
Rebecca Glauber
Jill Hanley
Belinda Hewitt
Andrea Hjálmsdóttir
Jennifer Hook
Sandra Idrovo
Marla H. Kohlman
Susan Lambert
Beth Livingston
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Melissa Milkie
Krista Lynn Minnotte
Kelly Musick
Sarah Patterson
Maureen Perry-Jenkins
Rachael N. Pettigrew
Birgit Pfau-Effinger
Shirley Porterfield
Susan Prentice
Linda Quirke
Margaret A. Shaffer
Sabrina L. Speights
Nora Spinks
Stephen Sweet
Tanja van der Lippe
Aida Villanueva
Amy Wharton
Mara Yerkes
2024 Conference Food Funds
Hugh Bainbridge
Kess Ballentine
Galina Boiarintseva
Anna Borg
Sarah Brauner-Otto
Kathryn Louise Brett
Heejung Chung
Charles Coleman
Sarah Damaske
Laura den Dulk
Christina Madchen Dreger-Smylie
Alison Earle
Sue Epstein
Daniel Erler
Janet Fast
Zachary Finn
Kimberly French
Martha Friendly
Peter J. Fugiel
Sylvia Fuller
Ellen Galinsky
Julia Goodman
Danna Greenberg
Angela Grotto
Leslie Hammer
Jill Hanley
Mojoko Clara Hemeko
Belinda Hewitt
Andrea Hjálmsdóttir
Jessica Hobbs
Heather Hofmeister
Jennifer Hook
John Hopkins
Eva Jaspers
Renge Jibu
Elise Bair Jones
Elise Jones
Hak Yoon Kim
Patrizia Kokot-Blamey
Steve Kovacic
Susan Lambert
Jean-Charles Emile Languilaire
Marianne Lapointe
Beth Livingston
David W.L. Ma
Bongekile P Mabaso
Andrew Nikko Magnaye
Maria I. Marshall
Krista Lynn Minnotte
Kaumudi Misra
Wendy Nilsen
Jessica Pac
Ipshita Pal
Birgit Pfau-Effinger
Christine Pfeiffer
Alejandra Pilarz
Shirley Porterfield
Agnieszka Postepska
Linda Quirke
Gudbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir
Alexandra Rheinhardt
Madeline Ellen Annie Robbenhaar
Maha Sabbah Karkabi
Katina Sawyer
Liana Sayer
Molly Schmidt
Margaret Shackell
Margaret A. Shaffer
Sudong Shang
Shweta Singh
Karen Elizabeth Smith
Lisa Stewart
Soo Min TOH
Cosmas Augustus Uhuo
Tanja van der Lippe
Ronit Waismel-Manor
Carolyn E. Waldrep
Tianying Wang
Deborah Widiss
Julie Yen
Mara Yerkes
General Funds
Hugh Bainbridge
Kathryn Louise Brett
Chuck N. Darrah
Claudia Geist
Kathleen Gerson
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus
Margo Hilbrecht
Susan Lambert
Susan Prentice
Maximiliane Reifenscheid
Liana Sayer
Stephen Sweet
Tanja van der Lippe
Julia Yang
The WFRN expresses gratitude to our partners and sponsors, who provided generous support to make the 2024 conference possible.
Benefactors
Patrons
Ellen Galinsky
Adam Galinsky and Jennifer Olayon
Promoters
Friends and Organization Partners
Kathleen Gerson
