Paul Rosenblatt joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 1969 and was among the founding faculty of the Department of Family Social Science when it was organized as a separate department in Home Economics in 1970. An award-winning teacher, he taught a wide range of courses but focused particularly on global and diverse families and qualitative research. He was advisor to numerous graduate students.
Although he officially retired from the department in 2011, he continues to write and publish, including research and writing on love letters, family and individual grief processes, and communication in therapeutic relationships, as well as short stories and creative nonfiction.
He is the author or co-author of 14 books, including Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing, that attracted worldwide media attention following its publication in 2006. Another, Multiracial Couples: Black and White Voices co-written with Terris Karis and Richard Powell, won the “Outstanding Book of the Year” award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights.
Rosenblatt’s books and over 200 articles have been cited over 11,000 times according to Google Scholar. His most recent academic research and writing focuses on death and grief in love letters, the grief of college faculty members over the deaths of students, love in unhappy couples, the challenges faced by cultural outsiders as clients in grief counseling, family resilience and diversity in dealing with grief, grief over drug-related deaths, and grief over the death of one’s best friend. His studies often use qualitative methods and phenomenological analysis.
He has been honored with fellow status by the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the National Council on Family Relations. He is also a member of the American Association of University Professors, the Association for Death Education and Counseling and the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. He was honored with the Award for Service to the University by the University of Minnesota Retirees Association in 2013.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University.
