Paula Fomby Named Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Chair in the Social Sciences

Paula Fomby, Professor of Sociology, has been named Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences. Fomby is a sociologist and family demographer whose research focuses on children’s well-being and life chances and the way these are shaped by families and social institutions, with particular attention to economic and racialized inequalities. Her research has been supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Science Foundation.

Fomby has authored numerous scholarly articles and several book sections. In 2023, she won Article of the Year from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Sociology of the Family for her co-authored article “Interlinking Structural Racism and Heteropatriarchy: Rethinking Family Structure’s Effects on Child Outcomes in a Racialized, Unequal Society.” Currently, Fomby serves as the Associate Director for Penn’s Population Studies Center, a member for the School of Arts & Sciences Teaching Award Committee, and Diversity Search Advisor for the School of Arts & Sciences Social Sciences Division and was a faculty judge for Penn Grad Talks.

The Kahn chairs were established through a bequest by Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn. Edmund Kahn was a 1925 Wharton graduate who had a highly successful career in the oil and natural gas industry. Louise Kahn, a graduate of Smith College, worked for Newsweek and owned an interior design firm. They supported many programs and projects at Penn, including Van Pelt Library, the Modern Languages College House, and other initiatives in scholarship and the humanities.