Michelle Napierski-Prancl, Ph.D.

Michelle Napierski-Prancl, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Denise Taber Finard ’80 Women’s Institute at Russell Sage College. She teaches both sociology and women’s studies courses and is program director of the Sociology major and Women’s Studies minor. Her research interests focus on gender, family, work, and popular culture and her publications include essays on the portrayal of gender in popular literature and articles on teaching pedagogy. Her first book, Mothers Work: Confronting the Mommy Wars, Raising Children, and Working for Social Change (2019) explores the institution of motherhood, mothering, and the mommy wars by sharing the voices of experts on the topic: the mothers themselves.

She is also the co-editor of Persevering During the Pandemic: Stories of Resilience, Creativity, and Connection (2022) which includes her chapter, “The Class of 2020: Parents’ Perspective of the Pomp and Terrible Circumstance.” This chapter focuses on parents of high school seniors in the Class of 2020, and their experiences as the pandemic closed schools and altered rituals like prom and graduation. In addition, Dr. Napierski-Prancl is often called on by journalists, bloggers and podcasters for commentary about baby names because of her research that explored the possible influence of popular music on names. In 2016, she  published “Brandy, You’re a Fine Name: Popular Music and the Naming of Infant Girls from 1965-1985” in the journal Studies in Popular Culture.