Dr. Shapiro joined the faculty of CSUSM in August 2016 and is currently Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Accelerated Online BA in Sociology.   Dr. Shapiro’s scholarship and teaching center on how families and communities care for people in later life in ways that enhance their quality of life and independence. He has taught and published extensively and has been awarded several grants from foundations, and local, state, and federal organizations. He has also consulted and lectured on constructing creative solutions to issues associated with the population aging. Prior to his faculty appointment, Dr. Shapiro was Founding Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences at CSUSM from 2011-2016. Prior to coming to CSUSM, Dr. Shapiro was Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of North Florida.

Dr. Shapiro holds a B.A. from the University of Florida with Honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Shapiro’s program of externally funded and published research addresses a number of interrelated questions that center on understanding the interplay between changing families and aging experiences. In pursuit of this line of inquiry, he has taken several distinct avenues in his research. One avenue is centered on how family formation, marital and union dissolution, and family processes influence intergenerational relations and well-being in middle to later life. His research examines how marriage and marital transitions influence multiple family members across generations, how they are modified and shaped by cumulative marital trajectories across time, and how they have differential consequences for individual health and well-being relative to one’s stage in the life course.

A second major avenue of Dr. Shapiro’s research program is centered on developing strategies and policies that enhance the well-being of older adults and the family members who help care for them. Dr. Shapiro has worked with a variety of local, state, and federal partners to study and promote programs that maximize older persons’ ability to remain independent, avoid or delay nursing home entrance, and enhance their quality of life.

Dr. Shapiro’s current project examines familial factors that influence and promote end-of-life planning activities among seniors.

Dr. Shapiro currently offers the following courses:

• SOC 303, Families and Intimate Relations
• SOC 309, Aging and Society
• SOC 314, Health and Society
• SOC 427, Social Gerontology

The Curriculum Vitae of Adam Shapiro, Ph.D. may be found at the following link:

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Shapiro’s Google Scholar Page