Jodi Yelinek

Jodi Yelinek
  • Assistant Professor
  • Department of Sociology
  • PhD, Michigan State University, 2016
  • 429 Berkey Hall
  • 509 E. Circle Drive
  • East Lansing, MI 48824
  • 517-353-1979

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Yelinek has been a part of MSU since 2011 (formerly in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies) and a member of the faculty in Sociology since 2019. She earned her B.A. in sociology at Oakland University in 1990 and her M.A. in 1995 from Wayne State University, also in sociology with a concentration in marriage and the family, specializing in qualitative and mixed methods research. Dr. Yelinek’s research interests at that time centered on ethnographic interviewing with couples that had been affected concurrently by substance abuse and the new presence of a child, either by marriage (stepchildren), adoption, or by birth. She later earned her doctorate in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at MSU. 

Dr. Yelinek worked for almost a decade as a licensed therapist (for individuals, couples, families, and groups) in Oakland and Genesee Counties and she applies that experience to her teaching of Society and Mental Health and other social science courses.  

Dr. Yelinek enjoys teaching SOC 350: Society and Mental Health as a seminar course, helping students to explore how society creates and responds to mental illness. She also often teaches ISS 210 (Society and the Individual: Cross Cultural Communication) and ISS 318 (Lifespan Human Development Across Cultures), as well as other sociology courses, such as Sociology of the Family and Global Migration, among others. Dr. Yelinek enjoys getting to know students, so stop by and say hello in 429 Berkey Hall! 

CURRENT RESEARCH

Dr. Yelinek's research interests have included the intertwining of personal and family identity, blame perception, risk and protective factors, the role of culture, and family resilience. In her own research, Dr. Yelinek examined the role of partner perception in assessing blame or responsibility for job loss in a primary provider and how that perception affects the resilience of the family. Her family background includes Native American (Ojibwe), Scandinavian (Finnish), and Eastern European (Russian) and much of Dr. Yelinek’s teaching and research in recent years has involved family sociology, society and mental health, cross cultural communication, cross disciplinary connections, and lifespan human development across cultures. 

CURRENT WORK and RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Yelinek, J.N. (2021, August) Assessment of Sociology Majors at MSU 

 (work in progress, not to be published) 

 Yelinek, J.N. (2019, August). Introductory sociology online course revision. 

Yelinek, J.N. & Griffore, R.J. (2019) Race of interviewer effects. Manuscript. 

Yelinek, J.N. (2018, August). Parenting and family skills faculty guide. 

Yelinek, J.N. (2018, March). Ethnicity, social class, and the family faculty guide. 

Brown, J.N. (2017, October). Family theory faculty guide. 

Brown, J.N. (2016). Effects of protective factors and the perception of blame in the 

            development of family resilience in the case of job loss of a primary provider.