J. Jill Suitor

Professor of Sociology Office: STON 355
Office Phone: (765) 496-1718
Email: jsuitor@purdue.edu

Specialization: Sociology of the family, sociology of health and illness, aging, gender.

Courses: Taught (Last two years)

SOC 350 - Social Psychology of Marriage
SOC 374 – Health of Americans
SOC 591 – Proseminar in Sociology
SOC 609 - Graduate Seminar in Aging and the Family
Soc 677 - Research Seminar on Aging and the Life Course


Dr. Suitor joined the faculty at Purdue University in 2004. Prior to this appointment she was a Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University. She has published more than 60 articles and book chapters on the effects of status transitions on intergenerational relations, social support networks, and marital quality. She is currently studying the causes and consequences of within-family differences and parental favoritism in later life families. She is a member of the NIH Study Section on Personality, Social Psychology, and Interpersonal Processes, and has served on the editorial boards of Social Forces and Gender & Society. She regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on family relationships across the life course, with a particular emphasis on later-life families.

Positions at Purdue University

2004 – present Professor of Sociology & Center on Aging and the Life Course

Service to the Profession

Elected Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, 2006Elected Member, Council, Section on Aging and the Life Course, American Sociological Association, 2004-2007
Elected Member, Council, Family Section, American Sociological Association, 2001-2004
Member, National Institutes of Health Study Section on Personality, Social Psychology, and Interpersonal Processes, 2003-2006

More Info