JHU SAIS to Host Forum on State of Marriage in United States

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The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) will host a forum, “The Marriage Go-Round: How and Why Family Life Is Different in the United States Than in Other Wealthy Nations,” on Monday, October 25 at 5:30 p.m.

The event, part of the “Year of Demography at SAIS,” will feature a lecture by Andrew J. Cherlin, professor of sociology and public policy at the Johns Hopkins Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

According to Cherlin, marriage in America is a social and political battlefield in a way that it is not in other developed countries. Yet Americans have more turnovers in their family lives, more spouses and partners moving in and out of the household.  Americans marry and divorce more often and have more short-term live-in partners than Europeans, and gay Americans seem to have more interest in legalizing same-sex marriage. This distinctive pattern comes from Americans’ embrace of two contradictory cultural ideals: marriage, a formal commitment to share one’s life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal growth and self-development. Religion and law in America reinforce both of these behavioral poles, fueling turbulence in family life and heated debate in public life.

The forum will be held in Kenney Auditorium located on the first floor of the school’s Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. Members of the public should RSVP to [email protected] or 202.663.5648.

Members of the media who plan to cover the event should respond to Felisa Neuringer Klubes at the SAIS Communications Office at202.663.5626 or [email protected].