Honoring Janet Moen, Professor Emerita

It is with sadness that we announce that our friend, colleague, and Professor Emerita, Janet Moen has passed.

Read the obituary online.

The Department of Sociology and UND benefitted greatly from the tireless efforts of Dr. Moen to find ways to use sociologically informed tools to bring about social change. Students remember her collaborative and engaging teaching style. Colleagues remember her thoughtfulness, energy, kindness, and commitment to using sociology to make the world better.

Faculty Reflection

Gabe Kilzer, Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology, reflects on his time as one of Dr. Moen’s students.

“Dr. Moen was one of my instructors as an undergraduate student and served on my thesis committee when I was a graduate student. While I have many fond memories of learning from and working with her, and I especially appreciated her patience with me as a graduate student, there is one memory from her Political Sociology class that has always stood out. We had been learning about globalization, studying the ways in which American politics and society had impacted global development. We went through the sociological analysis, but then she mentioned how we can see some of these patterns in popular culture. She then played the music video for the song Amerika by the German metal band Rammstein.

It makes me happy to think that Dr. Moen listened to metal regularly and used the “a student showed this to me” as cover, but I am not sure if she was a fan. Regardless, she saw that song as something that resonated with students and effectively used it as a teaching tool. As a student, I appreciated her willingness and ability to connect with us and treat us as collaborators in the teaching and learning process. As a teacher, I (try to) emulate Dr. Moen’s collaborative model when working with students.

Dr. Moen furthered my understanding of and appreciation for sociology and she continues to inform my teaching. I am grateful to have known her and to have been able to learn from and work with her. My thoughts are with her family and friends who celebrate her life and mourn her passing.”