Wiley’s Inaugural Alexis Walker Award Honors Family Studies Research

Hoboken, NJ, November 06, 2013 - John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is pleased to announce that the 2013 Alexis Walker Award will be presented to Professor Linda M. Burton and Professor Ingrid Arnet Connidis. The biannual award, which honors original scholarship in family studies, will be presented by the National Council on Family Relations on 6 November in San Antonio.

Professor Linda M. Burton, of Duke University, U.S.A., is being awarded for research published in Family Process which explores the role of 'othermothers;' women who parent their partner's children from other relationships.

Professor Ingrid Arnet Connidis, of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, is receiving the award in recognition of research published in the Journal of Family Theory & Review which used interviews and memoirs to explore gay men's ties with parents and siblings to reveal a clearer and more inclusive picture of gay men in families.

The new award has been established in the memory of Professor Alexis Walker, former President of NCFR and editor of Journal of Marriage and Family. Alexis Walker held the Petersen Chair in Gerontology and Family Studies at Oregon State University, where she served as Co-Director of the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. She was a visionary and eminent leader in Family Studies, known for the vitality and interdisciplinary perspective she brought to the scholarship of aging, families, feminism, ethnic minorities, gender, and health.The award was founded in Professor Walker's memory in 2012 and will be presented for the first time at the 75th conference of the National Council on Family Relations in San Antonio.

"There is not much in one's career or personal life that can top receiving an award named in honor of Alexis Walker," said Professor Burton. "Alexis was the quintessential humanist scholar whose scientific accomplishments, commitment to advancing family science through theoretical and methodological innovation, and care and mentorship of her colleagues and any junior scientist who came her way will forever be a game-changing legacy for the field and for many generations of family scientists to come."