About

Anna Michelson received her PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University and is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Behavioral Sciences Department at McPherson College.

Her dissertation Redefining the Romance: Community and Classification in Genre Publishing explored the how the boundaries of romance genre fiction – and the social meaning of romance itself – have evolved. She uses archival materials, interviews, and content analysis to show how romance came to include contested categories like erotic romance, LGBTQ+ romance, and multicultural romance. Advances in publishing technology and organizational change facilitated this diversification, which was driven by a meaning-making shift within the genre community. Once a private act of leisure, romance reading has taken on political significance as readers and writers see subversive potential in “happily-ever-afters” for historically marginalized groups.

Anna’s work has been published in Poetics, American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Sociological Forum.  

Areas of Interest

Cultural Sociology

Inequalities

Gender & Sexualities

Popular Culture, Media, & Arts

Work & Organizations

Education