Career and Family Life. Demography and Inequality in Focus. With Anette Fasang

As a central component of social life, family conveys rules and norms, shaping desires, fears, and aspirations. Yet, there is no fixed definition of what constitutes a family. In different times and cultures, family can be understood and lived in vastly different ways.

The interdisciplinary lecture series ‘Family in Relation’ focuses on the complex realities of the nuclear family model, which is particularly prevalent today in Western industrialized societies, and explores global perspectives on alternative models. Esteemed scholars from various disciplines and fields present current research that examines the potential of alternative family and kinship concepts, exploring their creative, ethical, and innovative dimensions.

The interdisciplinary lecture series is the prelude to the programme year of the same name at the Humboldt Forum, set to launch in the fall of 2025. Concept of the series: Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt University of Berlin), Dr. Alia Rayyan (Humboldt University of Berlin), Dr. Laura Goldenbaum (Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss). The lecture series is being held as part of a collaboration between all institutions of the Humboldt Forum. Head Curator for the Programme year 2025-26: Dr. Laura Goldenbaum.

Work and family advantages and disadvantages are closely linked, but this relationship varies greatly depending on gender and ethnicity. How strongly do work and family life influence each other? What patterns are typical for black and white men and women in these areas?

In her lecture, the 2023 Kanter Prize winner, Prof Dr Anette Fasang, will present an intersectional perspective on the life course. She will shed light on gender- and ethnically determined combinations of professional and family life from early adulthood to midlife and take a long-term perspective to show how lasting and accumulated disadvantages develop over a period of 20 years.

Dr. Anette Fasang is Professor of Microsociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences. Before moving to Berlin, she completed her doctorate at Jacobs University Bremen and did postdoctoral research at Yale University and Columbia University. Her research interests include family demography, stratification and life course sociology. She was awarded the prestigious Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research in 2018 and 2023. Her recent work has appeared in leading international journals such as American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Population and Development Review and Sociological Methodology.

- Free Admission

- Language: German

- Location: Ground Floor, Hall 3

- Part of: Lecture series “Family Matters”