The Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) is excited to host Family Upheaval: Contemporary Debates and Current Challenges, a Council on Contemporary Families Conference and Public Scholarship Workshop on October 2nd, 2026, at the University of Utah.

The conference will highlight the challenges families confront today, with focused sessions on family and intimate relationships, parenting and childhood, family roles and labor, inequality, and policy. Leading experts will offer insight and guide discussion on these and other pressing family issues for researchers and policymakers to consider in 2026.

The public scholarship training workshop will feature panels on interviewing with journalists, creating social media content, and engaging with policymakers. Participants will then work with CCF scholars in smaller breakout groups to learn how to produce brief reports, fact sheets, blog posts, op-eds, and social media video content. The deadline to register for the workshop is August 21st, 2026.  There is no fee to register. 

 

To register: CCF 2026 Conference and Public Scholarship Workshop Registration Form

 

Event Schedule

7:30a-8:00a Check-in

 

8:00a-8:05a – Opening remarks 

Daniel L. Carlson, CCF Executive Director

 

8:05a-9:15a – Session 1: Family and Intimate Relationships

Arielle Kuperberg, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

Josh Coleman, Clinical Psychologist and Author

Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, The Ohio State University

Cassandra Cotton, Arizona State University

Ken Hanson, University of Wyoming

 

9:15a-10:25a – Session 2: Parenting and Childhood

Jennifer Randles, Fresno State University

Maggie Kerr, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Caitlyn Collins, University of Washington - St. Louis

Michelle Janning, Whitman College, and Adina Nack, California Lutheran University

 

10:25a-10:40a – Break

 

10:40a-11:50a – Session 3: Family Roles and Labor

Alison Dunatchik, University of South Carolina

Jill Yavorsky, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

Kathleen Gerson, New York University

Allison Daminger, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

11:50a-1:00p – Session 4: Family Policy and Inequality

Regina Baker, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Jasmine Coleman, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Eman Tadros, Syracuse University

Jessica Su, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

 

1:00p-1:45p – Lunch

 

1:45p-3:00p – Session 5: Public Scholarship

Writing Op-Eds – Joanie Mazelis, Rutgers University - Camden

Engaging with Policy Makers – Haley Swenson, Deputy Director, Better Life Lab, New America

Social Media Content Creation – Dan McClellan, Theologian/Public Scholar/Content Creator

Engaging with Journalists – Lois Collins, Journalist, Deseret News

 

3:00p-4:30p – Public Scholarship Workshop Roundtables

 

4:30p-6:00p – Networking reception, CCF awards ceremony, and closing remarks

 

 

Click HERE for the conference flyer.