Research Area(s)

  • Families, family formation and couple formation
  • Intimate relationships and relationship advice
  • Representations of gender in popular culture
  • Self-help, experts and advice-seeking

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Toronto
  • M.A., University of Toronto
  • B. Soc.Sci. (Honours), University of Ottawa

Research Projects

  • "Experiences of disability and intimate relationship formation in modestly and under-resourced communities." SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2019-2021
  • "Talking about support: Encouraging perspective-taking and financial management skills for families during the university and college years." Canadian Home Economics Foundation Grant, 2018-2019
  • “Mapping supports and constraints in young women's transition to adulthood in the context of a rapidly changing Prairie city.” SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2014-2016
  • Relationship self-help and social change in North America
  • Dating: Choices, constraints and expert advice
  • Transition to adulthood: Resources, goals and couple formation

Selected Publications and Presentations

  • Knudson, Sarah. [Forthcoming.] “Bibliotherapy, Well-Being, and Empowerment: The Emancipatory Possibilities of Self-Help Reading, and How Libraries can Help.” In Knowledge, Reading and Culture: Studies in Information Practice, edited by Matthew Kelly. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2024. “Including Student Voices in Special Education Research Through Interviews and Classroom-Based Ethnography.” SAGE Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research.
  • Wellsch, Jordan, and Sarah Knudson. 2024. “Voices for Change: Qualitative Content Analysis of Environmental Activists with Autism in the News.” The Journal of Communication and Media Studies 9(1): 19-44. DOI: 10.18848/2470-9247/CGP/v09i01/19-44
  • Paul, Lara, and Sarah Knudson. 2023. “Revisioning Financial Education: Shortcomings and Opportunities for Transformation.” Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies 20(2-3): 139-159. DOI: 0.25071/1916-4467.40733
  • Murray, Jonah, and Sarah Knudson. 2023. “Mental Health Treatment and Access for Emerging Adults in Canada: A Systematic Review.” Frontiers in Public Health 11: 1088999. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1088999
  • Mazurik, Kathrina, Linzi Williamson and Sarah Knudson. 2023. “Socioeconomic Differences in Parental Financial Support, Coresidence, and Advice: A Portrait of Undergraduate Students in the Canadian Prairies.” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie. DOI: 10.1111/cars.12436 
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2023. “Transition Planning and Perceptions of Support in an Autism Spectrum Disorder Resource Program.” Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth. 68(3): 220-230. DOI: 10.1080/1045988X.2023.2207482
  • Knudson, Sarah, and Bidushy Sadika. 2023. “‘It’s complicated’: Online constructions of disability and romantic relationship formation." In Reading Sociology:  Decolonizing Canada (4th Edition), edited by Johanne Jean-Pierre et al. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
  • Wright, Laura, Sarah Knudson and Matthew Johnson. 2022. "Consequences of teen parenthood for teen mothers and fathers in Canada." Canadian Studies in Population 48: 441-468. DOI: 10.1007/s42650-021-00060-0
  • Knudson, Sarah, Kelley Bird-Naytowhow and Tamara Baldhead Pearl. 2021. “Finding our ‘good way’: critical reflections on researching disability, connection, and community from an Indigenous perspective.” Reflective Practice 22(3): 306-318. DOI: 10.1080/14623943.2021.1878124
  • Knudson, Sarah and Denise Hahn (Eds.). 2021. Committing Sociology: Critical Perspectives on our Social World. Toronto: Pearson.
  • Knudson, Sarah and Kathrina Mazurik. 2020. “Seeking Stability: A Preliminary Exploration of Canadian Young Adults’ Financial Goals.” Journal of Youth Studies 24(3): 285-304. DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1716964
  • Mazurik, Kathrina, Sarah Knudson and Yukiko Tanaka. 2020. “Stuck in the Nest? A Review of the Literature on Coresidence in Canada and the United States.” Marriage & Family Review 56(6): 491-512. DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2020.1728005
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2018. "Exploring Engagement with Non-Fiction Collections: Sociological Perspectives." Collection and Curation 37(2): 43-49.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2017. “Seeking Intimacy, Forming Families.” In Continuity and Innovation: Canadian Families in the New Millennium (1st Edition), edited by Amber Gazso and Karen Kobayashi. Toronto: Nelson.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2016. “A Good Match? Offline Matchmaking Services and Implications for Gender Relations.” Marriage & Family Review 53(7): 641-666. DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2016.1247764
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2014. “Getting Laid and Growing Close: Constructions of Masculinity in Relationship Advice for Heterosexual Men.” Qualitative Sociology Review 10(3): 116-137.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2013. “Crash courses and lifelong journeys: Modes of reading non-fiction advice in a North American audience.” Poetics 41(3): 211-235.
  • Charlesworth, Jennifer, Sarah Knudson and Mary Seeman. 2013. “Open Doors and Clear Boundaries: Mentorship in the Changing Context of Graduate Medical Education.” American Journal of Educational Research 1(1): 16-20.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2013. “Infidelity: Clinical Perspectives and the Broader Social Context.” Invited presentation at Psychiatry Rounds, University of Saskatchewan, May 3.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2011. "The Purchase of Enlightenment." Contexts 10(2):  66-67
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2011. "What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs:  Examining cultural change and ideas about gender equality in relationship self-help books, 1960-2009." In Reading Sociology:  Canadian Perspectives (2nd Edition), edited by Lorne Tepperman and Angela Kalyta.  Toronto: Oxford University Press.
  • Knudson, Sarah. 2009. Review of "Coping with Distances:  Producing Nordic Atlantic Societies," by Jørgen Ole Bærenholdt. Canadian Review of Sociology 47(2): 221-223. 
  • Park, Jungwee, and Sarah Knudson. 2007. "Medically unexplained physical symptoms," Health Reports Statistics Canada, Catalogue 82-003 18(1), pp. 43-47.

Teaching Responsibilities

  • SOC 210.3    Families: Social Structure and Social Change
  • SOC 211.3    Families: Gender Relations and Social Inequality
  • SOC 340.3    Marriage, Family and Society

Administrative Responsibilities

  • STM Committee for the Minor in Critical Perspectives on Social Justice and the Common Good, Chair