James House

James House is the Angus Campbell Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Survey Research, Public Policy, and Sociology at the University of Michigan, with appointments across the Institute for Social Research, Department of Sociology, School of Public Health, and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. In Social Science, his career exemplifies interdisciplinary contributions to understanding social structures and human well-being. He received a B.A. in History with a minor in Psychology from Haverford College in 1965 and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1972. House began his academic career at Duke University as faculty in Sociology from 1970 to 1978, alongside an adjunct role in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He joined the University of Michigan in 1978, holding joint appointments in the Survey Research Center and Sociology Department, with subsequent affiliations in Epidemiology and Gerontology. He served as Associate Chair (1981-1984) and Chair (1986-1991) of Sociology, Director of the Survey Research Center (1991-2001), and was named Angus Campbell Collegiate Professor in 2005 and Distinguished University Professor in 2008. House retired from active faculty in 2014.

House's research focuses on social and psychological factors influencing health and illness, starting with occupational stress and health in the 1970s, advancing to social relationships and support in the 1980s-1990s, and emphasizing psychosocial contributors to health disparities and aging. As founding principal investigator or co-investigator, he led landmark studies: Americans' Changing Lives (ACL), Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC), and Chicago Community Adult Health Study (CCAHS). His scholarship has earned election to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Key publications include Beyond Obamacare: Life, Death, and Social Policy (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015); co-edited Making Americans Healthier: Social and Economic Policy as Health Policy and A Telescope on Society: Survey Research & Social Science at the University of Michigan and Beyond; and highly cited articles such as 'Work Stress and Social Support' (1981), 'Social Relationships and Health' (1988), and 'Socioeconomic Factors, Health Behaviors, and Mortality' (1998). House has taught courses on social psychology, health determinants, and policy implications.