About Cathy Greenblat


I am a Professor Emerita of Sociology at Rutgers University where I served for 35 years as a member of the Department of Sociology, Women's Studies, and the Bloustein School of Planning.  The author of 14 books and more than 100 articles, I lectured in the USA, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, Africa, the Philippines, China, and Japan. Since 2002 when I retired from Rutgers, I have been engaged in a cross-cultural photographic project on aging, dementia, and end of life care. I am  an Artist in Residence at the University Hospital Network (CHU) of Nice, France and an Honorary Research Fellow at the International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University, UK. My second photo-driven book, LOVE, LOSS, AND LAUGHTER: Seeing Alzheimer's DIfferently is about to be published, and I am excited about it!

Photography has been a passion for me since I was a teenager and I saw the Family of Man exhibit at the MoMA.  I didn't have much time to DO photography, but I went to exhibits, read books, developed a strong belief that there were things that people could better understand through visual images than through text.  I also believed (and still do) that the mix of words and images is the most powerful.  My first photo-driven book, ALIVE WITH ALZHEIMER'S, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2004 was my initial attempt to create such a marriage:  not words to caption my photos, nor photos to illustrate my text, but a document that made the two partners.  I think it worked, but the new book, LOVE, LOSS, AND LAUGHTER goes much farther, also combining my interest in international perspectives.  I hope you like it!

While I was at Rutgers I had visiting research and teaching appointments at the University of New Hampshire, Princeton University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, and the Rutgers Medical School (now UMDNJ).  In addition, I had a number of short and medium term assignments from WHO, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNDP, IDRP and other public agencies as well as committee and contract assignments from the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Foundation for Science and Technology (Japan) the National Hemophilia Foundation and others.  As you can see, I've long had a commitment to international perspectives!

I've also enjoyed lecturing, and now I ONLY give highly illustrated lectures which are even more fun and more rewarding.  I've spoken to university audiences, specialized interest groups (e.g. psychiatric nurses, methodologists, visual sociologists) as well as to conference attendees, the general public and radio/TV audiences.  I am eager to do such talks in the coming months.