I am a professor in the Department of Sociology at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio. I joined the faculty at BGSU in 2009. Prior to coming to Bowling Green, I worked in the Department of Sociology at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb (as assistant professor) and the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary (as post-doc).
I earned my PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and my BA in History from the University of Tokyo.
Contact: knomagu@bgsu.edu
X/Twitter: @kei_nomaguchi
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Research
My research is about families, particularly about parents and children in the United States, and how having children affects adults. As a sociologist, I focus on the social roots of, and disparities in, the challenges and joys of parenting and in parent-child relationships in the U.S. I am interested in knowing about parents with children in early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.
My research examines how the health and well-being of parents and children differ across social groups by demographic characteristics, like gender, education, employment, marital status/partnership, race/ethnicity, and nativity.
To answer my research questions, I use secondary analysis of national surveys collected and made available for the public by various government and research agencies and other researchers.
The primary aims of my research are to inform policymakers about disparities in parental and child well-being across social groups, what types of demands of parenting are challenging for certain subpopulations, and what types of resources are scarce for parents to meet the demands of raising the next generation of our society.
My work has been published in major peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Society and Mental Health, Social Science Research, Social Science and Medicine, Socius, and other similar journals. My research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
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Teaching
I primarily teach undergraduate and graduate sociology courses on families and gender. I taught senior capstone courses for several years.
My favorite teaching motto is, “To teach is to touch lives forever.” The courses that I teach at the undergraduate level address various issues that are and will be super relevant to their family lives.
I strive to guide students to refine their skills to analyze and interpret information and data on social issues. I encourage them to evaluate the sources and the quality of data critically. I emphasize the importance of paying attention to the substantive implications of social issues for individual and societal well-being.
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Service
I have served on editorial boards of Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Society and Mental Health, Sociology Compass, and Social Currents.
I have been a member of scientific review sections for NICHD grant proposals as an ad-hoc member (2022-2023) a regular member (2023-2027).
I was on the council (2017-2020) and was a chair-elect, chair, and past-chair (2021-2024) of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
Kei Nomaguchi, PhD., Family Sociologist 