Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST
Location: Columbia University Medical Center Allan Rosenfield Building
722 West 168th Street (and Haven Avenue) Department of Sociomedical Sciences Fifth Floor, Room 532

The Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies Begins its Fall 2008 Grand Rounds Series with a presentation by Joanna Badagliacco, Chellgren Professor for Undergraduate Excellence, an Associate Professor of Sociology, and the Director of the Discovery Seminar Program at the University of Kentucky. She is an affiliated faculty member in Gender and Women's Studies, Appalachian Center, and the Center for Poverty Research. Winner of multiple teaching awards, Dr. Badagliacco is also a Fulbright Senior Specialist in teaching and methods of inquiry. She received her Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, specializing in the sociology of families. Her scholarly work examines families and women's lives with respect to issues of reproduction, family planning, poverty, homelessness, genomics, and overall social justice, and social inequalities.

Her talk will be about homeless fathers present with their wives and children who have rarely been studied, especially in rural America.  Nationally, most of the chronically homeless are men, but they are not homeless with their wives and children. Moreover, research on family homelessness has focused on women with children. This work is part of an ethnographic study of 86 homeless families in Kentucky, within which only 16 men were present.  We attempt to understand who are these men who remain with their families? This research also attempts to expand theoretical models originally developed to explain the survival strategies of the rural homeless mothers with children. Where do homeless fathers fit it?  What are their basic mental and physical health needs? What social policies are required to assist them?

Please RSVP to: szv1@columbia.edu  T: 212-305-6609