Joanna Pepin
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joannapepin.bsky.social
Joanna Pepin
@joannapepin.bsky.social
1.3K followers 430 following 160 posts
My sociology is powered by lattes & baseball. Assistant Professor at University of Toronto. Studying families, gender, and health.
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joannapepin.bsky.social
Onto the stage where I wonder why I pitched teaching this course at all. (Source: www.sociology.org.uk/notes/fpolic...)
"Social policy" as it affects family life is both a very large area to cover and, perhaps more importantly, is a very imprecise area of the syllabus - it's difficult to either define what we mean by "social policy" or to know where it effectively begins and ends in relation to family life. The idea of social policy in relation to the family specifically is a fairly arbitrary relationship (since it's difficult to decide where "family life" begins and ends in relation to social policies).
June 4, 2025 at 5:25 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
I found this interesting teaching note, which suggests there is also not a lot of content to find. 😐 doi.org/10.1177/0092...
Teaching Family? Care/ Work Policy in Selected Family Courses in Canada’s Research-Intensive Universities To what degree is explicit care/work policy taught in family courses in Canada’s leading research-intensive universities? We analyze family courses in sociology departments and in political studies and women’s/ gender studies programs in Canada’s 15 R1 universities to make a contribution to the scholarship of teaching and learning. This national scan marks a methodological innovation from curriculum studies that generally adopt a single-program or single-site focus. From a Canadian universe of 74 family courses, we identify 15 whose formal course calendar description explicitly addresses care/work family policy (measures to reconcile caring for young children with employment, through early learning and childcare, parental leaves, and child benefits). Sociology predominates among courses where family policy is taught, yet care/work policy content is not common. Given growing concerns about the care crisis and the care deficit in Canada, the low profile of care/work family policy content in family courses is significant. This study sheds light on the value of national postsecondary education curricular reviews and suggests that family curriculum renewal is warranted.
June 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Coffee! Baseball!
Me with coffee at the M's vs Jay's game.
April 20, 2025 at 6:55 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Nice to see #Canada pride from the only Canadian #MLB umpire! 🇨🇦 (Go #Ms!) www.sasksport.ca/news/i-defin...
Umpire with Canadian flag on gear.
March 30, 2025 at 2:33 AM
joannapepin.bsky.social
You know the start of horror movies, when the victim doesn't yet know they are a victim and you're screaming at the screen for them to do something? Well, that's where we are in the U.S. right now.
Drew Barrymore holding a phone in the kitchen in the opening scene of the 1996 movie "Scream."
February 5, 2025 at 9:47 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
I had to see it to believe it! Right there on page 3.
iii. to the extent practicable, relevant, appropriate, and consistent with law, mitigate the unique impacts of DOT programs, policies, and activities on families and family-specific difficulties, such as the accessibility of transportation to families with young children, and give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average (including in administering the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grant program)
January 30, 2025 at 9:01 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Today is a day for doughnuts. 🍩
January 20, 2025 at 3:26 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
We were so fortunate that @philipncohen.com kicked off his book tour at @uoftsociology.bsky.social! Thanks for visiting Toronto in January! ❄️ #sociology
Me next to Philip, holding a copy of his new book, "Citizen Scholar."
January 17, 2025 at 8:05 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
These are the two pieces I have my students read. But, there's so much to choose from!
Thatcher, Jenny. 2019. “Keeping It Classy: Wedding Dresses and Distinction.” Pp. 123–40 in The Wedding Spectacle Across Contemporary Media and Culture: Something Old, Something New, edited by J. B. Kay, M. Kennedy, and H. Wood. United Kingdom: Routledge. Fetner, Tina, and Melanie Heath. 2016. “Do Same-Sex and Straight Weddings Aspire to the Fairytale? Women’s Conformity and Resistance to Traditional Weddings.” Sociological Perspectives 59(4):721–42. doi: 10.1177/0731121415601269.
January 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
It's dark and cold but beautiful. #toronto
CN tower and Canada life building
January 9, 2025 at 11:04 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
These were our previous #Kdrama lists (also in order of enjoyment).
December 31, 2024 at 6:18 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Here's the list of #Kdrama shows we watched this year, in rough order of our enjoyment level. Really loved our first two picks. Always looking for recommendations! #YearInReview
1. Miss Night and Day 2. Castaway Diva 3. My Roommate is a Gumiho 4. Queen of Tears 5. See You in My 19th Life 6. Welcome to Samdal-ri 7. Doctor Slump 8. My Man is Cupid 9. Start-Up 10. Destined with You 11. Mr. Plankton 12. Love Next Door 13. Frankly Speaking 14. Romance in the House 15. The Trunk
December 31, 2024 at 6:18 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
The top 20 books I read (not for work) in 2024. #YearInReview
A Spoonful of Time Outlive Buddhism without Beliefs Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop Rocky Start The Perfection Trap Finding Me The Comfort Crisis Anita de Monte Laughs Last The Love of My Afterlife Pineapple Street The Burnout Yellowface The Age of Magical Overthinking Hotline Normal People Present Perfect Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Dial A for Aunties Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)
December 31, 2024 at 2:30 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
This hot mulled cider was everything I wanted it to be.
December 21, 2024 at 12:55 AM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Apparently (news to me!), the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) covers open access article publication charges at many journals for authors at participating Canadian Universities! #OpenAccess #OpenScience

www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/open-acce...
With guidance from our members and the Content Strategy Committee, CRKN is pursuing read and publish agreements in alignment with our Strategic Plan. As part of CRKN’s commitment to drive the evolution of open knowledge, these read and publish agreements repurpose funds that CRKN members have traditionally paid in subscription fees for a publisher's journals, to cover open access publishing and full reading access for those same journals. Through these read and publish agreements, CRKN members have leveraged their collective negotiating power to support the Canadian research community. By covering the cost of open access publishing in these agreements, CRKN members are unlocking a significant volume of Canadian research publications, while ensuring that research funding can cover researcher needs rather than publishing costs.
December 20, 2024 at 2:27 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
I'm really not sure I have the time to answer this. 🫠 #RestrictedDataApplication
Survey question asking: "Do you have relationships with persons (immediate family, partners, close friends, colleagues, etc.) living outside Canada? If so, complete the table below (add pages if necessary):"
December 16, 2024 at 2:34 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Egg nog gelato. 😋 #toronto
Egg nog gelato in a cup with a spoon.
December 13, 2024 at 9:27 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Today's latte art, a seahorse. ☕ #toronto
Seahorse in a latte.
December 12, 2024 at 4:21 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Inspired, I created this chart using newly available Statistics Canada data. Code here: github.com/jrpepin/Now-...
Bar chart showing the proportion of women faculty at Canadian universities.
December 5, 2024 at 2:57 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
New findings in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social: "Women comprise roughly 1/3 of all faculty and only 23% of tenured faculty (at globally ranked universities)." sociologicalscience.com/articles-v11...
Tenure gap for women faculty: women’s share of all faculty compared with women’s share of faculty with tenure by country.
December 5, 2024 at 2:57 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Transgender and Non-Binary Canadian Population statistics (2021) #NowYouCanadaKnow
code: github.com/jrpepin/Now-...
Bar chart showing Canada’s Transgender and Non-Binary Population
December 4, 2024 at 9:46 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
My boss (me) has unreasonable productivity expectations for the end of the year. I have diagnosed her/me with a terrible case of "completionist urge" (as described by author Oliver Burkeman). ckarchive.com/b/zlughnh4ml...
It’s the urge toward completion at all costs, based on the idea that it’s imperative to get the work out of the way, to fulfill your obligations to others, and thus reach the sunlit plateau of no longer having anything you need to do. And behind all that is generally a self-worth issue: the feeling that until you get it done, you aren’t a fully adequate human, and haven’t quite earned your right to exist.
December 4, 2024 at 8:08 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
Hope they can relocate successfully. 😞 #Toronto #coffee
Third Wave Coffee closing notification
December 4, 2024 at 7:41 PM
joannapepin.bsky.social
I'm so pleased @altmetric.com added BlueSky! Most attention for our recent @readdemography.bsky.social article is from this site.
Altmetric score = 17. 18 Bluesky users; 1 X user
December 4, 2024 at 2:31 AM
joannapepin.bsky.social
I am obsessed with my holiday cactus. This is the first year I got it to bloom. ❤️
Holiday cactus.
November 26, 2024 at 2:23 PM