Janet Gornick, the director of the Stone Center and a professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, was awarded an honorary doctorate on September 29 by Stockholm University in Sweden in recognition for her research on socio-economic inequality.
“Her widely cited research concerns links among social policy, gender gaps in the labor market, and income distribution, themes that interest sociologists, economists and political scientists,” the university said. “She has long been a key person at LIS, formerly called the Luxembourg Income Study, a data archive that provides harmonized income and wealth data from more than 50 countries, of which Sweden is one, enabling high-quality research on economic and social inequalities. Researchers at Stockholm University have been actively involved in LIS since its founding and have been frequent users of its data.”
Gornick served as the director of LIS from 2006 to 2016, and established a U.S. satellite office of LIS at the Graduate Center. That satellite office is now a part of the Stone Center, which she has directed since it was founded in 2016. Gornick is also the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Distinguished Chair in Socio-Economic Inequality at the Graduate Center.
Stockholm University is home to the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), one of the most important social policy research institutes in the world. From the start of Gornick’s career, she has studied, written, and taught about Swedish social policy and socio-economic outcomes. “For anyone who studies social welfare policy in western countries — especially related to gender disparities in the labor market, poverty, and income inequality — Sweden is an inspiration as we search for policy models,” Gornick says. “To have my work honored by a university in Sweden is especially rewarding.”
The degree was awarded in a ceremony at Stockholm City Hall. During her time in Stockholm, Gornick also delivered a keynote lecture, “Gendered Parenting: The Socio-Economics of Fatherhood in Cross-National Perspective,” at Fathers and Families, the Third Gender Economics Research Network Annual Workshop. Traditionally, recipients of an honorary degree give a lecture in their field of expertise during their visit to the university.