Janice M. McCabe
Professor of Sociology
Associated Faculty, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
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.
Contact
Department(s)
Sociology
Education
- B.A. Tulane University
- M.A. Indiana University
- Ph.D. Indiana University
Selected 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. * * Reviewed in Change, Library Journal, and Social Forces
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
Speaking Engagements
"How Gender Shapes Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Adele Ramos Salzer '40 Lecture and Reading Series, Newcomb Institute. Tulane University, April 2026.
"Gender and College Students' Friendships." Gender and Higher Education Conference, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, April 2026.
"Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends." Elon University, March 2026.
"Making Friends on College Campuses: The Role of Friendship Markets and Network Types." Keynote address for the One Symposium, Association of College & University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I). Virtual, March 2026.
Discussion with Virtual Book Club, Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends, Dartmouth Alumni Club of Greater Boston, March 2026.
Webinar, Understanding Students' Friendships: How Friendship Networks Matter During College,
-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.
Selected Works & Activities
Selected media coverage of my research:
FRIENDSHIP:
Quartz: Researchers identify teachable skills for making and keeping friends as loneliness rises
CNN: How To Make – and Keep – Friends as an Adult, According to Science
Real Simple: How To Make New Friends as an Adult, According to Friendship Experts
The New York Times: Have You Closed Your 'Social Rings' This Week?
The New York Times: "The Friendship Advice Experts Swear By"
Podcast, "If You've Come This Far," Season 5, Episode 3: "Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends"
The Last Show with David Cooper, "Friendship Markets"
AirTalk on LAist NPR: What goes into finding the right friends at the right time?
Washington Post OpEd: Want to Succeed in College? Spend More Time Playing Video Games with Friends
Time magazine: How To Make Friends as an Adult and Why It's Important
NPR: How College Friendships May Affect Academic Success
USA Today: It's not me, it's Netflix: With password sharing on the block, how to boot your friends
BBC: Can Gen Z make friends in the pandemic era?
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Friendships and Their Influence on Academic Success
Quartz: The Sociological Argument for Breaking Up With Bad Friends
Boston Globe: What Kind of Friend Are You?
NBC News: These Are the Types of Friendships That Exist - And How They Impact GPA
Inside Higher Ed: Friends With (Academic) Benefits
NY Mag: Here Are The Three Types of Friendship Networks
Quartz: An Ivy League Professor Says There Are Only Three Types of Friendships We Make
Mental Floss: Most People's Friendships Fall Into One of Three Categories
CNBC: How To Decide If You Should Transfer to Another College
GENDER ATTITUDE AND BELIEF INVENTORY (GABI):
Teaching Sociology podcast: : http://tso.sagepub.com/content/41/3/282/suppl/DC1
GENDER IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS:
The Telegraph: 5 literary heroines to inspire girls this international women's day
New York Times: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/new-study-finds-gender-bias-in-childrens-books/?_r=0
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/06/gender-imbalance-children-s-literature
Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/14078-males-dominate-childrens-books.html
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/06/study-suggests-winnie-pooh-isnt-gender-equal-does-matter/
San Francisco Chronicle: http://blog.sfgate.com/mmagowan/2011/05/16/new-study-reports-huge-gender-imbalance-in-kidlit/