You can pretty much sum up Jan E. Stets ’80 with one word: scholar.
But there are a myriad of other words one could use to describe her: trailblazer, pioneer, mentor, author, alumna, benefactor. If you get the luxury of a conversation with her, you will quickly realize, beyond her formidable stack of textbooks, national awards and decades of research, she is a passionate, down-to-earth human whose experiences make her one of the most interesting people you will encounter.
From her early days at the University of Dayton to her current role as a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, Stets has spent more than four decades studying identity, emotion and morality. She laid the foundation for lifelong research right in the UD sociology department.
“The UD experience helped as a springboard for that kind of intellectual life,” Stets said. “The people in the sociology department really taught me about doing good science and making a contribution to the social sciences.”
While her coursework taught her how to do science, UD's campus culture provided the human element that would later help define her research.
“The other thing about UD is that it really creates a real community of faith,” she said. “And that has stayed with me throughout a lot of my research.”
That community focus was immediate. Because of a housing shortage when she transferred to UD, Stets was one of about 60 students assigned to live at a local La Quinta hotel for her first semester. The unusual living arrangement, complete with room service, forged tight-knit relationships.
“All of us who lived in the hotel, we all got really close,” she said. “It was a real bonding experience.”
Nearly 45 years later, she remains close to some of those college friends, reuniting again with them earlier this year in Scottsdale, Arizona. Each time they reunite, they pick up where they left off. It is an enduring connection that Stets attributes to the Marianists’ community-centric environment.
Once she moved onto campus, she focused her work on sociology and psychology, and took several theology classes with Father Jim Heft, S. M., a Marianist priest who later became UD’s provost and chancellor. Their friendship, which developed thereafter and over the years, helped forge a collaboration on a 2021 Oxford University Press co-edited volume, Empty Churches: Non-Affiliation in America.
After graduating in 1980, Stets took her UD training directly to Indiana University Bloomington for graduate school, specializing in social psychology — a subfield that merged her sociological training with her psychological coursework. After a postdoctoral year at the University of New Hampshire and 14 years at Washington State University, she joined UC Riverside in 2002. There, she became the first woman in her department’s history to rise to the rank of distinguished professor.
Succeeding in academia as a woman in a male-dominated field was a “tough journey” that required starting at the bottom, she recalled. To survive the climb, she leaned heavily on her support systems.
“That’s why supportive family and friends have been so crucial,” Stets said.
Outside the classroom, that grounding is captured in a plaque that her brother and sister-in-law gave her as a gift one Christmas. It remains in her living room and serves as a daily reminder of what she values, reading simply: “Faith, family, friends, and fun.”
“That,” she said, “is what it’s all about.”
Today, Stets is a leading scholar of identity theory, specifically focusing on identity verification — the human need for others to see us the way we see ourselves. Her research on moral identity revealed a specific paradox: while nearly everyone carries an internal identity as a moral person, they still commit harmful acts.
“When people act immorally, they don't identify as a bad person,” she said. “They end up disengaging from the bad thing — they explain it away or ignore it — so that they can still feel good about themselves. Feeling moral makes you feel good about who you are, raising your self-esteem and self-efficacy. You feel like you can still make a difference in the world and be a good person.”
Stets has analyzed identity processes across 14 books and more than 100 articles, including the two-volume Handbook of Social Psychology and Identity Theory: Revised and Expanded, Second Edition. Her work has earned her the title of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the ASA Section on Emotions 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award and the ASA Section on Social Psychology 2020 Cooley-Mead Lifetime Achievement Award.
Now, Stets is funding the next generation of researchers at the university where her career began. She finances UD undergraduate research projects concerning the intersection of faith and science. The initiative, led by distinguished research professor of microbiology Fred C. Tenover, allows undergraduates to conduct hands-on research on modern structural issues in the Catholic church, including inclusivity and the role of women. Most recently, she helped fund a UD student’s project about the history of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic church.
For Stets, sponsoring these specific student projects brings her undergraduate journey full circle, uniting scientific inquiry with the values she learned four decades ago.
“What I really value is doing science but also seeing how it can intersect with your own beliefs and values,” Stets said. “I think the Marianists at UD have made it a unique, special place for people to return to and give back. It was a special, unique place that fostered support, community, love and faith. You don't get that every day.”