Redefining Success When Polyamorous Relationships End

Sunday October 23rd — 7:30 pm — $15

Although most families have divorced members in their kinship networks, conventional wisdom still defines a marriage or long-term relationship that ends in any other outcome besides death as a failure. These cultural norms define “successful” relationships as monogamous and permanent in that the two people involved remain together at all costs. Polyamorists, in contrast, define the ends of their relationships in a number of ways in addition to success or failure.

In this workshop, using data from a 20 year study of polyamorous families, Dr. Elisabeth Sheff will touch briefly on her research methods, explain the three primary ways in which poly people think about the ends of their relationships, look at some of the social implications of redefining the ends of or transitions in relationships, and take questions from the audience.

Dr. Elisabeth Sheff is one of a handful of global experts on polyamory and the foremost international expert on children in polyamorous families. She authored the books When Someone You Love is Polyamorous and The Polyamorists Next Door: Inside Multiple-Partner Relationships and Families. Sheff has given scores of radio, podcast, print, and television interviews and has also published over 20 peer reviewed journal articles and chapters in books pertaining to gender, families, and sexual minorities. Blogging for Psychology Today and How Do I Date, Sheff makes academic research easily accessible to everyone.

This class has already taken place. Thanks for attending!