Dr Janna Klostermann
Positions
Assistant Professor
Contact information
Background
Educational Background
PhD Sociology, Carleton University, 2021
MA Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, Carleton University, 2015
MA Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago, 2011
BA Communication, Roberts Wesleyan College, 2007
Biography
Janna Klostermann is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology. Her book, At the Limits of Care: Gendered Work and Stories that Matter, was published with University of Toronto Press in the fall of 2025.
Over the last ten years, Klostermann has conducted research with paid care staff, family care providers, and people who rely on care, with the goal of improving services for all involved. With a broader focus on structural conditions of care, her current research focuses both on health workforce planning in Alberta’s continuing care sector, and on the political economy of older adult abandonment in contemporary welfare states.
Prior to joining U.Calgary in 2022, Klostermann completed a PhD in Carleton’s Department of Sociology (2021), and a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship in Brock’s Department of Sociology (2022). Her dissertation was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level.
Research interests: paid and unpaid care work, work and organization studies, feminist theory, narrative sociology, memoir-writing
Teaching interests: sociology of work, sociology of health and illness, special topics courses related to gendered care work, and aging, disability and social welfare
Research
Areas of Research
- Sociology of health and illness
- Care work, care theory
- Work and organizational relations
- Nursing homes (long-term residential care)
- Qualitative research methods (e.g., narrative, ethnography, arts-based methods)
- Storytelling and the arts
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| SOCI 321 | Sociology of Health and Illness | Fall 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 |
| SOCI 403 | Topics in Gender Relations - Care Work and Gender | Winter 2024, Fall 2025 |
| SOCI 601 | Sociology of Work and Organizations | Winter 2025 |
| SOCI 393 | The Sociology of Work | Winter 2023, 2024 |
| SOC 419.6 | Topics in the Sociology of Health and Illness | Winter 2023 |
Projects
Principal Investigator, ‘Care Work Shortages and Shifting Cultural Expectations in Alberta’s Long-term Residential Care Sector: What Can We Learn at the Limits?’
SSHRC Insight Development Grant ($69,194), University of Calgary (2023-Present)
Co-Investigator, ‘Imagine Age-Friendly ‘Communities within Communities’: International Promising Practices’
SSHRC Partnership Grant ($2,500,000), PI: Dr. Tamara Daly (2023-Present)
Co-Investigator, ‘Strengthening Care Mobilization in Canada’s Social Welfare State’
SSHRC Insight Grant ($187,853), PI: Dr. Laura Funk (2021-Present)
Co-Investigator, ‘Reimagining Care/Work Policies’ Project
SSHRC Partnership Grant ($2,499,444), PI: Dr. Andrea Doucet (2020-Present)
Collaborator, ‘Victim Services Providers and Vicarious Resilience’
SSHRC Insight Grant, PI: Dr. Ben Roebuck (2021-2023)
Postdoctoral Fellow Award, ‘Imagining Equitable, Sustainable Care Relations’
SSHRC ($90,000), Brock University (2021-2022; declined 2nd year)
Awards
- Governor General’s Gold Medal, 2021
- University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level, Carleton University. 2021
- Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2016
Publications
- Care containers: The multilayered politics of boundless work in Canada’s victim services sector. Klostermann, J., Bunting, S., Maki, K., & Przednówek, A.. Studies in Political Economy. (2025)
- Bounding the boundless: Gendered work hierarchies and “boundless work” in Ontario longterm care homes. Klostermann, J, & Funk, L. . Studies in Political Economy. (2024)
- Turned towards: The politics of responsibility in Canadian news media narratives of family care. Sawchuk, D., Klostermann, J., Funk, L., Cherba, M., Giguère, L., & Dunsmore, R.. Journal of Canadian Studies. (2024)
- Producing the public caregiver: The discursive politicization of family caregiving by Canadian caregiver organizations. Funk, L., Klostermann, J., Symonds-Brown, Aubrecht, K., & Giguère, L.. International Journal of Care and Caring. (2024)
- Bev said 'no": Learning from nursing home residents about care politics in our aging society. Klostermann, J. The Gerontologist. (2023)
- Making joy possible in care home policies and practices. Braedley, S., Armstrong, P., & Klostermann, J. Care homes in a turbulent era: Do they have a future?. (2023)
- Residents who care: Rethinking complex care and disability relations in Ontario nursing homes. Klostermann, J. Unpaid work in nursing homes: Flexible boundaries. (2023)
- Unpaid work in public places: Nursing homes in times of COVID-19. Armstrong, P., & Klostermann, J. Confronting the Global Care Crisis During COVID19: Past Problems, New Issues, and Pathways to Change. (2023)
- What and how are we measuring when we research gendered divisions of domestic labor? Remaking the Household Portrait into a Care/Work Portrait. Doucet, A., & Klostermann, J. Sociological Research Online. (2023)
- More than a visitor? Rethinking metaphors for family care in long-term care homes. Klostermann, J., & Funk, L. Ageing & Society. (2022)
- The problems with care: A feminist care scholar retrospective. Klostermann, J., Funk, L., Symonds-Brown, H., Cherba, M., Ceci, C., Armstrong, P., & Pols, J. Societies. (2022)
- What we can learn from Toronto AIDS activists about transforming public services. Klostermann, J., & Hurl, C. Interface. (2021)
- Working the project: Research proposals and everyday practices for emerging feminist researchers. Klostermann, J., McAleese, S., Montgomery, L., & Rodimon, S. Canadian Review of Sociology. (2020)
- Remembering George W. Smith’s ‘life work’: From politico-administrative regimes to living otherwise. Hurl, C., & Klostermann, J. Studies in Social Justice. (2020)
- Altering imaginaries and demanding treatment: Women’s AIDS activism in Toronto, 1980s-1990s.. Klostermann, J. Women’s Health Advocacy: Rhetorical Ingenuity for the 21st Century. (2019)
In the News
- Fighting privatization and austerity in Ontario healthcare. The Leveller.
- 'Getting unstuck’: Women who care for others should feel OK stepping back. The Conversation.
- Long-term care workers face ethical questions in an unjust system. NOW Magazine.
- L’Arche International has a history of exploiting women. Toronto Star.
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