Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also the Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); and a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied on a National Science Foundation graduate student fellowship and a Harry S. Truman fellowship. Kearney is now a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy<\/em> and Journal of Economic Literature<\/em>, and a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources<\/em> and Senior Editor of the Future of Children<\/em>. She serves on the Board of MDRC and the Board of Governors of the Smith Richardson Foundation. Kearney was Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2013-2015 and co-chair of the J-PAL State and Local Innovation Initiative from 2015-2018. Kearney\u2019s academic research focuses on domestic policy issues, especially issues related to social policy, poverty, and inequality. Her most recent book is the bestselling The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind<\/em> (2023).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brad Wilcox is Professor of Sociology and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Future of Freedom Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Wilcox earned a BA as a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia and later earned his PhD from Princeton University. Prior to coming to the University of Virginia, he held research fellowships at Princeton, Yale, and the Brookings Institution. Wilcox studies marriage, fatherhood, and the impact of strong and stable families on men, women, and children. He is the author and co-author of six books and has written for scientific journals such as The American Sociological Review<\/em> and The Journal of Marriage and Family<\/em>, as well as popular outlets like The New York Times<\/em>, The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, The Atlantic<\/em>, and National Review<\/em>. He is the coauthor of Gender and Parenthood: Biological and Social Scientific Perspectives<\/em> (2013) with Kathleen Kovner Kline, and with Nicholas H. Wolfinger, he is the co-author of Soul Mates: Religion, Sex, Love, and Marriage Among African Americans and Latinos<\/em> (2016). His research has been featured in The New York Times<\/em>, The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, The Atlantic<\/em>, National Review Online<\/em>, NPR, NBC\u2019s The Today Show<\/em>, and many other media outlets. Wilcox consults regularly with companies such as Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and Kimberly-Clark on fertility and marriage trends in the United States. He is most recently the author of Get Married: Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization<\/em> (2024).<\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"part-1-the-american-family","image":{"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1.png","id":899,"extension":"png","width":1080,"height":1080,"filesize":618827,"sizes":{"medium":{"width":768,"height":768,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":363775,"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1-768x768.png"},"large":{"width":1024,"height":1024,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":579032,"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1-1024x1024.png"},"thumbnail":{"width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":22210,"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1-150x150.png"},"medium_large":{"width":768,"height":768,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":363775,"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1-768x768.png"},"small":{"width":512,"height":512,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":183465,"url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1-512x512.png"}}},"all_day":false,"start_date":"2025-02-12 18:30:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"02","day":"12","hour":"18","minutes":"30","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2025-02-12 20:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"02","day":"12","hour":"20","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2025-02-12 18:30:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"02","day":"12","hour":"18","minutes":"30","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2025-02-12 20:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"02","day":"12","hour":"20","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"UTC+0","timezone_abbr":"UTC+0","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":913,"author":"365","status":"publish","date":"2024-08-08 20:57:06","date_utc":"2024-08-08 20:57:06","modified":"2024-08-08 20:57:06","modified_utc":"2024-08-08 20:57:06","url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/venue\/watkins-room-trone-student-center\/","venue":"Watkins Room, Trone Student Center","slug":"watkins-room-trone-student-center","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"Watkins Room, Trone Student Center","description":"","url":"","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"global_id":"www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program?id=913","global_id_lineage":["www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program?id=913"]},"organizer":[],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"Part 1 “The American Family”","description":"<p>Melissa S. Kearney (University of Maryland) Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also the Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy […]<\/p>\\n","image":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2024\/08\/Feb-Pt1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/event\/part-1-the-american-family\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2025-02-12T18:30:00+00:00","endDate":"2025-02-12T20:00:00+00:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"Watkins Room, Trone Student Center","description":"","url":"","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"performer":"Organization"}}Brad Wilcox (University of Virginia)<\/h3>\n