Dr. Pauline Boss Professorship in Ambiguous Loss crosses threshold to fulfillment

CEHD announced this spring that the Dr. Pauline Boss Professorship in Ambiguous Loss fund has achieved its initial goal. The fund will support a faculty position focused on the field of ambiguous loss, an area of scholarship pioneered by CEHD Professor Emeritus Pauline Boss to understand and address the effects of unresolved loss.

"This fund was established nearly 20 years ago, growing over time through the dedication of many stakeholders. It has been a top priority for university leadership, including the investment of matching dollars within the last year," says CEHD Dean Michael Rodriguez. "We are grateful to professor emeritus Dr. Pauline Boss and the community of supporters as we’ve successfully campaigned to reach our goal. With excitement, we celebrate the official transition to a professorship! We look forward to recruiting and retaining the brightest in the field, ensuring our position as leaders in the work of ambiguous loss."

Dr. Boss has helped people across the world cope with the grief associated with loss through her development of ambiguous loss theory and its translation to clinical, community, and research-based settings. 

She was a member of the Department of Family Social Science faculty from 1981 to 2005. In her groundbreaking work in research and practice, Dr. Boss coined the term ambiguous loss in the 1970s and since then, has developed and tested the theory of ambiguous loss, a guide for working with families of the missing, physically or psychologically in over 100 peer-reviewed academic articles and chapters as well as five books. Her most recent book is The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change (W. W. Norton, 2022). Her work is known around the world and her books are now available in 19 different languages. Dr. Boss practiced family therapy for over 40 years and continues to give webinars and presentations across the globe. She is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the National Council on Family Relations of which she is a former board president

"Given the increasing occurrence of ambiguous losses resulting from family separations, illnesses, dementias, climate changes, and war, there is a need to continue the research and education about ambiguous loss at the University of Minnesota," says Dr. Boss. "Community support has made this possible in the highly regarded Department of Family Social Science, located in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota."

Learn more and support this fund

Make a gift to the Dr. Pauline Boss Professorship in Ambiguous Loss. 

Learn more about Ambiguous Loss and the certificate program offered in CEHD.