white woman with brown hair smiling with shoulders back

Dr Janna Klostermann

PhD
Pronouns: she/her

Positions

Contact information

Web presence

Phone number

Office: 403.220.6856

Location

Office: SS934

Background

Educational Background

PhD Sociology, Carleton University, 2021

MA Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, Carleton University, 2015

MA Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago, 2011

BA Communication, Roberts Wesleyan College, 2007

Biography

Janna Klostermann is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, and a current research fellow in the Calgary Institute for the Humanities. Her research and teaching interests include work/labour studies, paid and unpaid care work, feminist theory and narrative/arts-based approaches.  

Klostermann completed her PhD in Carleton’s Department of Sociology (2021), and a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship in Brock’s Department of Sociology (2022). Her dissertation was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level. 

Her first book project, At the Limits of Care (under contract with University of Toronto Press) challenges dominant narratives around gendered care work through sociological memoir writing and life history research with women who reached their limits and stepped back from paid and unpaid care work roles in Ontario’s caring economy. 

Klostermann is also currently conducting research in Alberta’s long-term care sector, as part of her SSHRC-funded ‘Learning at the Limits’ study. The project aims to rethink dominant gendered and racialized assumptions around care in light of public sector shortages. 

Since joining U. Calgary in 2022, Klostermann has taught courses in the sociology of work, sociology of health and illness, and other special topics courses related to gender and care work. 

Research

Areas of Research

Feminist sociology
  • Sociology of health and illness
  • Care work, care theory
  • Work and organizational relations
  • Nursing homes (long-term residential care)
  • Qualitative research methods (e.g., narrative, ethnography, arts-based methods)
  • Storytelling and the arts

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
SOCI 601 Sociology of Work and Organizations Winter 2025
SOCI 321 Sociology of Health and Illness Fall 2024
SOCI 403 Topics in Gender Relations - Care Work and Gender Winter 2024
SOCI 393 The Sociology of Work Winter 2024
SOCI 321 Sociology of Health and Ilness Fall 2023
SOC 393 The Sociology of Work Winter 2023
SOC 419.6 Topics in the Sociology of Health and Illness Winter 2023
SOCI 321 Sociology of Health and Illness Fall 2022

Projects

Research Funding

Principal Investigator, ‘Care Work Shortages and Shifting Cultural Expectations in Alberta’s Long-term Residential Care Sector: What Can We Learn at the Limits?’ 
SSHRC Insight Development Grant ($69,194), University of Calgary (2023-Present)

Co-Investigator, ‘Imagine Age-Friendly ‘Communities within Communities’: International Promising Practices’
SSHRC Partnership Grant ($2,500,000), PI: Dr. Tamara Daly (2023-Present)

Co-Investigator, ‘Strengthening Care Mobilization in Canada’s Social Welfare State’ 
SSHRC Insight Grant ($187,853), PI: Dr. Laura Funk (2021-Present)

Co-Investigator, ‘Reimagining Care/Work Policies’ Project 
SSHRC Partnership Grant ($2,499,444), PI: Dr. Andrea Doucet (2020-Present)

Collaborator, ‘Victim Services Providers and Vicarious Resilience’
SSHRC Insight Grant, PI: Dr. Ben Roebuck (2021-2023)

Postdoctoral Fellow Award, ‘Imagining Equitable, Sustainable Care Relations’
SSHRC ($90,000), Brock University (2021-2022; declined 2nd year)

Awards

  • Governor General’s Gold Medal, 2021
  • University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level, Carleton University. 2021
  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2016

Publications