{{Short description|British sociologist (born 1943)}} {{Use British English|date=March 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}} {{about|the sociologist|the advertising executive|Janet L. Wolff}} {{Infobox academic | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|3|25|df=y}} | birth_place = Manchester, United Kingdom | occupation = {{flatlist| * Sociologist * art historian * aesthetician }} | awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (1993) | alma_mater = University of Birmingham | discipline = Sociology of art | workplaces = {{ublist| * University of Leeds * University of Rochester * Columbia University * University of Manchester }} }} '''Janet Wolff''' (born 25 March 1943) is a British sociologist and art historian. After working for some time as a secretary at the North Western Gas Board, she decided to attend university after seeing her sister go to one, and she obtained her BSS and PhD at the University of Birmingham. She worked at University of Leeds, University of Rochester, Columbia University, and eventually the University of Manchester, where she retired as professor emeritus. She has written several books on sociology and art studies, and following her retirement from Manchester, the history of Manchester. ==Biography== ===Early life and education=== Wolff, of German Jewish descent,<ref name="JT 2017"/> was born on 25 March 1943 in Manchester to Rosabelle ({{nee}} Noar) and chemist/company director Arthur Wolff.<ref name="ency"/> Her father was born in Berlin and fled the antisemitic Nazi regime to Eccles, Greater Manchester, working for Lankro Chemicals.<ref name="JT 2017"/> Several of her relatives were murdered in the Holocaust.<ref name="JT 2017"/>

Wolff's family lived in northern Manchester before they moved to Didsbury, and she was educated at Manchester High School for Girls.<ref name="JT 2017"/> She attended Miss Wilkinson's Secretarial College for Gentlewomen and worked at the North Western Gas Board as a manager's private secretary.<ref name="JT 2017"/> She then decided to attend a university after her sister went to one in Bristol, and she studied moral and political philosophy at the University of Birmingham, where she obtained a BSS with first class honors in 1968 and a PhD in sociology and the arts in 1972.<ref name="JT 2017"/><ref name="ency"/> She also spent two years attending the London Contemporary Dance School from 1970 to 1972.<ref name="ency"/> ===Academic and writing career=== In 1973,<ref name="ency"/> Wolff became a lecturer at University of Leeds after Zygmunt Bauman offered a teaching job there.<ref name="JT 2017"/> She stepped down from her job at Leeds in 1989 and moved to California.<ref name="JT 2017"/> She was Professor of Art History/Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Janet Wolff |url=https://nyupress.org/author/janet-wolff/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=NYU Press}}</ref> where she directed the PhD program in visual and cultural studies (1991–2001).<ref name="mancu"/> She was later Professor of Arts at Columbia University,<ref>{{Cite web |title=AngloModern by Janet Wolff {{!}} Paperback |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801487422/anglomodern/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801487422/anglomodern/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Cornell University Press}}</ref> where she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of the Arts from 2001 to 2006.<ref name="mancu"/> She eventually received several job offers from institutions based in the UK,<ref name="JT 2017"/> and in 2006, she became a professor at the University of Manchester.<ref name="mancu"/> She retired from the university in 2010 and was eventually promoted to professor emeritus.<ref name="mancu">{{Cite web |date=March 7, 2026 |title=Janet Wolff |url=https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/janet.wolff |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=University of Manchester}}</ref>

Wolff focuses on the sociology of art; aesthetics; and 20th-century art.<ref name="mancu"/> She is author of ''Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art'' (1975), ''Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art'' (1983), ''Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture'' (1990), ''Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism'' (1995), and ''AngloModern: Painting and Modernity in Britain and the United States'' (2003), and she edited ''The Sociology of Literature: Theoretical Approaches'' (1977) with Jane Routh.<ref name="ency"/> She was part of the British Sociological Association's executive committee from 1977 to 1979.<ref name="ency"/> In 1993, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Janet Wolff |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/janet-wolff/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Guggenheim Fellowships}}</ref>

Wolff became interested in non-academic writing after retiring from Manchester.<ref name="mancu"/> In 2017, she published ''Austerity Baby'', a narrative volume on exile and displacement, through Manchester University Press.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Manchester University Press – Austerity baby |url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526121301/ |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Manchester University Press}}</ref> She has also co-edited several books on the history of Manchester, such as ''Culture in Manchester'' (2013), ''The Photographs of Zygmunt Bauman'' (2023), and ''The Simons of Manchester'' (2024).<ref name="mancu"/>

===Personal life=== Originally living in Woodhouse during her time at Leeds,<ref name="ency"/> Wolff moved to Didsbury as part of her return to the United Kingdom.<ref name="JT 2017"/> After the United Kingdom voted in favor of Brexit, Wolff became a German dual citizen by descent.<ref name="JT 2017"/>

Although Wolff had often went to synagogues with her parents during her youth, the family "[wasn't] very involved",<ref name="JT 2017"/> and she later identified as a Jewish atheist after starting her academic career.<ref name="ency"/>

Wolff was once diagnosed with thyroid cancer, something she attributed to water tainted by the Windscale fire in 1957.<ref name="JT 2017"/> ==Works== *''Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art'' (1975){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=James |first=Kim |date=1976 |title=Review of Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Arts |JSTOR=1573579 |journal=Leonardo |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=248–248 |doi=10.2307/1573579 |issn=0024-094X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kavolis |first=Vytautas |date=1975 |title=Review of Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art: An Approach to Some of the Epistemological Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge and the Sociology of Art and Literature |JSTOR=430087 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=215–215 |doi=10.2307/430087 |issn=0021-8529}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laurenson |first=Diana |date=1976 |title=Review of Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=589572 |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=105–106 |doi=10.2307/589572 |issn=0007-1315}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosenblum |first=Barbara |date=1977 |title=Review of Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art. |JSTOR=2778317 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=495–499 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sharon |first=Batia |date=1977 |title=Review of Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art: An Approach to some of the Epistemological Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge and the Sociology of Art and Literature. |JSTOR=2064783 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=304–304 |doi=10.2307/2064783 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref>}} *(ed. with Jane Routh) ''The Sociology of Literature: Theoretical Approaches'' (1977)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selden |first=Raman |date=1979 |title=Review of The Sociology of Literature: Theoretical Approaches; The Sociology of Literature: Applied Studies |JSTOR=42852079 |journal=Sociology |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=154–157 |issn=0038-0385}}</ref> *(ed. with Michele Barrett, Philip Corrigan, and Annette Kuhn) ''Ideology and Cultural Production'' (1979){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldfarb |first=Jeffrey C. |date=1981 |title=Review of Ideology and Cultural Production |JSTOR=2066865 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=219–219 |doi=10.2307/2066865 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selden |first=Raman |date=1980 |title=The Problem of 'Relative Autonomy' in Cultural Studies |JSTOR=42852181 |journal=Sociology |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=301–306 |issn=0038-0385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tristram |first=R. J. |date=1980 |title=Review of Ideology and Cultural Production |JSTOR=589798 |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=589–590 |doi=10.2307/589798 |issn=0007-1315}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Robert N. |date=1980 |title=Review of Ideology and Cultural Production. |JSTOR=2577202 |journal=Social Forces |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=975–976 |doi=10.2307/2577202 |issn=0037-7732}}</ref>}} *''The Social Production of Art'' (1981){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bowler |first=Anne |date=1984 |title=Review of The Social Production of Art. |JSTOR=2578588 |journal=Social Forces |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=1122–1124 |doi=10.2307/2578588 |issn=0037-7732}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DiMaggio |first=Paul J. |date=1983 |title=The Sociology of Art Comes of Age |JSTOR=2068956 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=272–274 |doi=10.2307/2068956 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Griswold |first=Wendy |date=1983 |title=Review of The Social Production of Art. |JSTOR=2779025 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=730–732 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schaefer |first=Jean Owens |date=1991 |title=Marxism, the Sociology of Art, and Women Artists |JSTOR=1358194 |journal=Woman's Art Journal |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=53–55 |doi=10.2307/1358194 |issn=0270-7993}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weismann |first=Donald L. |date=1983 |title=Review of The Social Production of Art |JSTOR=42861532 |journal=Social Science Quarterly |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=218–219 |issn=0038-4941}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Edmond |date=1983 |title=Review of The Social Production of Art; Beyond Art. What Art Is and Might Become if Freed from Cultural Elitism |JSTOR=1772160 |journal=Poetics Today |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=141–144 |doi=10.2307/1772160 |issn=0333-5372}}</ref>}} *''Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art'' (1983){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beardsley |first=Monroe C. |date=1984 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=3332581 |journal=Journal of Aesthetic Education |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=123–123 |doi=10.2307/3332581 |issn=0021-8510}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fyfe |first=G. J. |date=1983 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=42852669 |journal=Sociology |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=618–620 |issn=0038-0385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamblen |first=Karen A. |date=1995 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=3333296 |journal=Journal of Aesthetic Education |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=107–110 |doi=10.2307/3333296 |issn=0021-8510}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hill |first=Michael R. |date=1985 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art (Controversies in Sociology No. 14) |JSTOR=23252978 |journal=Mid-American Review of Sociology |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=91–92 |issn=0732-913X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kavolis |first=Vytautas |date=1983 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=430667 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=222–223 |doi=10.2307/430667 |issn=0021-8529}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosenblum |first=Barbara |date=1983 |title=Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art |JSTOR=2068039 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=669–670 |doi=10.2307/2068039 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref>}} *(ed. with John Seed) ''The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class'' (1988){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alfrey |first=Nicholas |date=1990 |title=Review of Art and Politics of the Second Empire: The Universal Expositions of 1855 and 1867; The Culture of Capital: Art, Power, and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class |JSTOR=884373 |journal=The Burlington Magazine |volume=132 |issue=1049 |pages=582–582 |issn=0007-6287}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brain |first=David |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class. |JSTOR=2780457 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=270–271 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frisby |first=David |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class, Manchester |JSTOR=42854615 |journal=Sociology |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=160–162 |issn=0038-0385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Griswold |first=Wendy |date=1990 |title=Into Something Rich and Strange: Contrasting Perspectives on the Visual Arts |JSTOR=2072774 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=508–511 |doi=10.2307/2072774 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hichberger |first=Joan |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class |JSTOR=3828272 |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=594–595 |issn=0042-5222}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoppit |first=Julian |date=1991 |title=A Very Polite and Commercial People |JSTOR=176046 |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=345–349 |issn=0021-9371}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kidd |first=Alan |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class |JSTOR=4049956 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=323–325 |doi=10.2307/4049956 |issn=0095-1390}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1988 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class |JSTOR=25143121 |journal=Labour / Le Travail |volume=22 |pages=380–380 |doi=10.2307/25143121 |issn=0700-3862}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=MacKenzie |first=John M. |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: art, power and the nineteenth- century middle class |JSTOR=24414447 |journal=History |volume=74 |issue=242 |pages=549–549 |issn=0018-2648}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nenadic |first=Stana |date=1989 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power, and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class |JSTOR=44610120 |journal=Urban History Yearbook |volume=[16] |pages=190–191 |issn=0306-0845}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perkin |first=Harold |date=1990 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class; Englishness: Politics and Culture, 1880-1920 |JSTOR=1881269 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=374–377 |issn=0022-2801}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pollard |first=Sidney |date=1990 |title=Review of The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middel Class |JSTOR=20735799 |journal=VSWG: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=544–544 |issn=0340-8728}}</ref>}} *''Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture'' (1990){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ferris |first=Lesley |date=1992 |title=Absent Bodies, Dancing Bodies, Broken Dishes: Feminist Theory, Postmodernism, and the Performing Arts |JSTOR=3174731 |journal=Signs |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=162–172 |issn=0097-9740}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Turner |first=Bryan S. |date=1992 |title=Review of Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture |JSTOR=2075596 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=724–725 |doi=10.2307/2075596 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref>}} *''Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism'' (1995){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bywater |first=William |date=1996 |title=Review of Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism |JSTOR=431938 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=412–413 |doi=10.2307/431938 |issn=0021-8529}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Curry |first=Renée R. |date=1996 |title=Review of Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism |JSTOR=1348363 |journal=Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=110–112 |doi=10.2307/1348363 |issn=0361-1299}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daniel |first=Jamie Owen |date=1996 |title=The Romance of Marginality |JSTOR=4022415 |journal=The Women's Review of Books |volume=13 |issue=6 |pages=22–23 |doi=10.2307/4022415 |issn=0738-1433}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Philippi |first=Desa |date=1998 |title=Changes at a Standstill |JSTOR=1360704 |journal=Oxford Art Journal |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=149–154 |issn=0142-6540}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Starr |first=Chelsea |date=1996 |title=Review of Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory.; Resident Alien: Feminist Cultural Criticism. |JSTOR=2077318 |journal=Contemporary Sociology |volume=25 |issue=6 |pages=818–820 |doi=10.2307/2077318 |issn=0094-3061}}</ref>}} *''AngloModern: Painting and Modernity in Britain and the United States'' (2003){{efn|Reviews of this book: <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corbett |first=David Peters |date=2005 |title=Anglo-Modernism: Gender, Ethnicity and Value |JSTOR=4500036 |journal=Oxford Art Journal |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=488–491 |issn=0142-6540}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duran |first=Jane |date=2005 |title=Review of Anglomodern: Painting and Modernity in Britain and the United States |JSTOR=3527413 |journal=Journal of Aesthetic Education |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=118–120 |issn=0021-8510}}</ref>}} *''The Aesthetics of Uncertainty'' (2008)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haskins |first=Casey |date=2009 |title=Review of The Aesthetics of Uncertainty |JSTOR=25622106 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=427–429 |issn=0021-8529}}</ref> *(ed. with Mike Savage) ''Culture in Manchester'' (2013)<ref name="mancu"/> *(ed. with Jackie Stacey) ''Writing Otherwise'' (2013)<ref name="mancu"/> *(ed. with Peter Beilharz) ''The Photographs of Zygmunt Bauman'' (2023)<ref name="mancu"/> *(ed. with John Ayshford and others) ''The Simons of Manchester'' (2024)<ref name="mancu"/> ==Notes== {{notelist}} ==References== <references> <ref name="ency">{{Cite web |title=Wolff, Janet 1943– |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/wolff-janet-1943 |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

<ref name="JT 2017">{{Cite news |last=Wachmann |first=Doreen |title=Janet’s love-hate relationship with her home country |url=https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_419.html |access-date=2026-03-07 |website=Jewish Telegraph}}</ref> </references> {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Janet}}

Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:British art historians Category:British women art historians Category:20th-century British historians Category:20th-century British women writers Category:21st-century British historians Category:21st-century British women writers Category:Sociologists of art Category:20th-century sociologists Category:British sociologists Category:British women sociologists Category:British philosophers of art Category:British women philosophers Category:20th-century British philosophers Category:Local historians of England Category:People educated at Manchester High School for Girls Category:Academics of the University of Leeds Category:University of Rochester faculty Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Academics of the University of Manchester Category:British people of German-Jewish descent Category:British expatriate academics in the United States Category:Academics from Leeds Category:Writers from Leeds Category:Writers from Manchester Category:People from Didsbury