Springfield College Hosts Annual Social Sciences Lecture

Springfield College hosted its annual Social Sciences Lecture on Monday, April 2, in the Cleveland E. and Phyllis B. Dodge Room inside the Flynn Campus Union. Jennifer M. Silva, PhD, assistant professor of sociology at Bucknell University, delivered this year’s keynote address. She focused on how young adults confront transformations of work, higher education, and romance in the 21st century. 

Author of the book Coming Up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty, Silva examines the transition to adulthood for working-class youth. She examines how young adults in today’s society forge new pathways to adulthood in a world of disappearing jobs, shrinking social support, and fragile families. Silva will discuss what this new definition of adulthood might mean for the future.

Silva’s scholarship has appeared in academic journals and has been featured in The Boston Globe.