Hi! I'm Abi Ocobock. I'm a sociologist and feminist scholar/activist, with expertise in the sociology of the family, gender and sexuality, and institutions. I am an Associate Professor of Sociology and Concurrent Faculty in the Gender Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame.

My research is motivated by two questions central to the field of sociology:

1) how institutions shape individuals’ relationship choices and practices, focusing on the institution of marriage; and

2) how social constructions of gender and sexuality explain relationship behaviors.

In my book, Marriage Material: How an Enduring Institution is Changing Same-Sex Relationships (University of Chicago Press, 2024), I draw on interview and survey data that I collected from 116 LGBQ individuals who were among the first to gain access to legal marriage to offer insights into mechanisms of institutional governance and change. I challenge the prevailing consensus in family sociology that marriage is a weakened institution, and illuminate the mechanisms through which contemporary marriage works. Ultimately, I argue that marriage has a more transformative power over same-sex relationships than LGBQ individuals have over the meanings and practices of marriage.

My second book project continues to examine diverse marriage populations, and how individuals navigate institutional, gender, and sexual expectations in marriage, but shifts attention to bisexuals. Bisexuals constitute the fastest growing group and largest proportion within the LGBTQ+ umbrella. But changes in identity are not matched by changes in behavior, with most bisexuals maintaining different sex relationships. What does this mean for sexual and gendered negotiations within relationships and marriage? I answer this with a longitudinal, qualitative study of bisexual identity and relationship formation.

I have two other article-based projects on the go. One investigates how exogenous social shocks provide opportunities for gendered change within relationships. Drawing on interview data I collected with 80 partners in heterosexual couples, who were working from home and homeschooling children during the pandemic, I investigate how equalizing work and parenting positions led to gendered change, and what got in the way. Another project with a graduate student, draws on national experiment data to explore the racial and gendered processes undergirding "Karen" labeling.

My work has been published in The American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Marriage Family, Gender and Society, and Current Sociology as well as in edited volumes by Routledge Press. It has also been featured in popular media outlets, such as Slate, Reuters, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast.

I was born and raised in England. I received a BA from the University of East Anglia in 2002, and a Master’s Degree from Oxford University in 2003, before emigrating to the US. I then completed a PhD from the University of Chicago in 2015.

Before becoming an academic, I worked in policy research, managing large-scale non-profit and government research projects.

In my spare time, I love hiking and exploring the outdoors. I also enjoy (amateur) photography, and going to art museums and concerts. I have two hilarious kids and cats.

Latest news:

Marriage Material: Available now (Use the discount code UCPNEW to receive a 30% discount!)

Check out my answer to the p.99 Test!

Check out my answers at The Society Pages Blog!

Press coverage: "Hitting a New Mother Load" (Summer 2021) by Tara Hunt McMullen

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