Rate My Professor Anna Michelson

Anna Michelson serves as Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Behavioral Sciences Department at McPherson College, having joined the faculty in August 2022. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University, where her dissertation, 'Redefining the Romance: Community and Classification in a Popular Fiction Genre,' examined the evolution of romance genre fiction boundaries and the social meaning of romance, incorporating archival materials, interviews, and content analysis. She also earned an M.A. in Sociology from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Sociology, magna cum laude, from Macalester College. Prior to her current role, Michelson was an instructor and teaching assistant at Northwestern University, delivering courses such as Sociology of Popular Culture, Sexuality and Society, Introduction to the Discipline, and various others including Research Methods, The Family, and Food and Society. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes facilitating skills for students to explore interests through sociological thinking, observing the interplay between self and society, and following curiosity.

Michelson's research interests encompass culture, gender, sexuality, theory, and qualitative methods, with a focus on how advances in publishing technology and organizational changes have diversified romance fiction into categories like erotic romance, LGBTQ+ romance, and multicultural romance, attributing political significance to the genre as readers and writers identify subversive potential in 'happily-ever-afters' for marginalized groups. Her peer-reviewed publications include 'The Politics of Happily-Ever-After: Romance Genre Fiction as Aesthetic Public Sphere' in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology (2021) and, co-authored with Wendy Griswold, 'The Outsider’s Edge: Geography, Gender, and Sexuality in the Local Color Movement' in Sociological Forum (2020, 35(3): 628-647). She has received the Weinberg College Teaching Fellowship (2019), an Academic Research Grant from Romance Writers of America ($2000, 2018), multiple Northwestern research grants, and honors such as Honorable Mention for the Robert F. Winch Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Lecturer (2019). At McPherson College, she teaches Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Marriage and Family, Criminal Justice, and Sociology Theory, and chairs the Institutional Review Board while contributing as a reviewer for Poetics. Her scholarship has been presented at American Sociological Association meetings, including Sociology of Culture Roundtables.