Janice M. McCabe | Department of Sociology

Biography

My research seeks to understand how and why people connect, particularly how college students make friends, the structure of their friendship networks, and ways their friends help and hinder their success. In my new book Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks (The University of Chicago Press, 2025), I investigate students' friendship networks at three types of institutions (a community college, a liberal arts college, and a research university) to better understand differences and similarities in how students make and keep friends as well as how their friendship networks help and hinder their academic and social success. My first book Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success (The University of Chicago Press) explores how undergraduates' friendships help and hinder their success during and after college. Broadly, my work focuses on inequalities, identities, and networks, particularly among students.

I teach courses about gender, youth, education, social problems, and research methods, and I am the residential house professor for Allen House and the President of the Sociology of Education Association .

To find out more, read my New York Times OpEd "I study friendship. Here's how you make lasting friends," my Washinton Post OpEd "Want to succeed in college? Spend more time playing video games with friends" or my NBC OpEd "How to hold on to the adult friends you value - and let go of those you don't," or listen to my interview on NPR's 1A, the "Dear Nina" Podcast, or "The New Books Network."

Here are two handouts that I give out in talks - a summary of Connecting in College and the "What Friendship Network Type Are You?" Quiz.

Education

B.A. Tulane University

M.A. Indiana University

Ph.D. Indiana University

Taught Courses

Socy 31 - Youth and Society

Socy 58 - Education and Inequality

Socy 11 - Research Methods

Socy 56 - Sociology of Gender

Socy 2 - Social Problems

Publications

Janice McCabe. 2026. "I Study Friendship. Here's How You Make Lasting Friends." The New York Times. Online edition 1/3/26. Print edition 1/5/26, page A17.

Janice McCabe. 2025. Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students' Networks. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Estéfani Marín and Janice McCabe. 2024. "Is Belonging What You Do, Who You're With, or Who You Are? Three Pathways of Belonging among Latina/o Co-Ethnics at a Predominantly White Institution." Journal of Latinos in Education. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2024.2396922

Janice McCabe. 2023. "Friendships and Student Success in College." Journal of Postsecondary Student Success 2(3):1-18. doi: 10.33009/fsop_jpss132950

Janice McCabe. 2022. "Peer Relations and Friendship among Postsecondary Students." Pp. 130-142 in Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education, second edition, edited by James Côté and Sarah Pickard. London and New York: Routledge.

Jennifer J. Lee and Janice McCabe. 2021. "Who Speaks and Who Listens: Revisiting the Chilly Climate in College Classrooms." Gender & Society 35(1):1-29. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891243220977141

Janice McCabe. 2020. "Why Study with Friends?: A Relational Analysis of Students' Strategies to Integrate Social and Academic Life." Pp. 135-156 in Relational Sociology and Research on Schools, Colleges, and Universities, edited by William G. Tierney and Suneal Kolluri. Albany: SUNY Press.

Janice McCabe. 2016. Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. * * Reviewed in Contemporary Sociology, Journal of College Student Development, and British Journal of Educational Studies. * * Honorable Mention for the Midwest Sociological Society's 2018 Distinguished Book Award.

Janice McCabe. 2016. "Friends With Academic Benefits." Contexts 15(3):22-29. http://ctx.sagepub.com/content/15/3/22?etoc

Speaking Engagements

"How Gender Shapes Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Adele Ramos Salzer '40 Lecture and Reading Series, Newcomb Institute. Tulane University, April 2026.

"Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Elon University, March 2026.

Webinar, Understanding Students' Friendships: How Friendship Networks Matter During College,

- October 2025, Uwill

-October 2023, Christie Campus Health

Keynote, Residential College Symposium, October 2023, Virginia Tech.

Keynote, "Connecting: The 2023 Division of Student Affairs Professional Development Day," November 2023, Dartmouth College.

"Designing Friendships: Fostering Friendships and Social Connections."

- Invited Presentation at the American College Health Association (ACHA) Innovations Summit, "Inspiring Hope & Real Solutions to Address College Mental Health and Well-Being," October 2019, College Park, Maryland.

- South Carolina College Personnel Association's Fall Virtual Drive-In Conference. Afternoon Keynote Address. October 2020.

"Friends with Academic Benefits: Tight-Knitters, Compartmentalizers, and Samplers."

- Vermont Humanities, First Wednesday, Ilsley Public Library, December 2020.

- University of Maryland, Department of Sociology, October 2019