Cassie Mead is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. Her research examines the intersection of gender, work, and family. In particular, she studies couple-level interactional processes during periods of transition, analyzing how shifts in work and home life shape relationship dynamics and the division of paid and unpaid labor. She employs a wide range of methodological approaches, including qualitative interviews, and advanced statistical methods on large-scale complex survey data.
In her dissertation, Cassie explores how dual-earner couples navigate job search processes and how these experiences are shaped by gender and class. Drawing on 65 in-depth interviews of job seekers and their partners, she examines how couples balance two careers, manage job applications, and negotiate individual preferences during the job search, as well as how these processes vary across career phase.
In her other research, she examines the experiences associated with different phases of romantic relationships and major transitions in relationships, as well as the impact of overwork and burnout on work-family balance. Her work has explored divisions of household labor in cohabitation and marriage, as well as how family and employment transitions shape the gendered division of labor. In a current working paper, she examines how time spent together and relationship investment shape non-exclusive couples’ transition to exclusivity. She also studies overwork and burnout, including how individuals justify overwork in otherwise supportive workplaces. Her studies have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Marriage and Family; Community, Work, and Family; and Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research.
In addition to her research, Cassie is deeply committed to undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentorship. In her time at Indiana University, she has taught multiple sections of “Sociology of Families” as the sole instructor and served as a lab instructor for an undergraduate statistics course. She has received multiple departmental teaching honors, including the Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship, the Sutherland Teaching Award, and the Stewart Family Scholarship/Kruse Fellowship.
More information about Cassie can be found on her website: https://cassiemead.com/
Education History
M.A., Sociology, Indiana University, 2023
B.A., Sociology and Theatre Performance, University of Mount Union, 2020
The College of Arts