Blog
Class, Language, and Political “Issues”
More than once since I released The Political Disconnect, people have asked me something like "what are the issues that the low-income and working-class people you spoke with care the most about?" On the one hand, that's a great question - we should of course all be...
On Social Media & how I use it – Jan 8 2026
[The most important thing happening right now is not at all what's below; the most important thing is that people are out protesting the killing of Renee Good. My family was at a protest, I'm on a mini-retreat to get myself organized for the semester, hence this...
Academics & Others Standing up for Democracy & Education
I have an op-ed in the Philly Inquirer today (gift link). It came out of my work on/with WeAreHigherEd.OrgAll of us who care about democracy need to decide how we'll respond as we see our institutions, our work, and our communities being attacked.Many of us in...
Declines in turnout among low-income people in the US – again
Voter turnout among lower-income people and communities dropped in 2024 relative to 2020, which was already lower than 2016. The gap between voting by the privileged/high income and voting by lower-income people widened (relative to 2020, which was already a bigger...
People-ing Politics: A Strategy for Research and Practice
[This is the manifesto/mission statement for the People-Ing Politics Network, which is a collaboration between myself and HEARD; James R. Jones and the Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America; and Wendy Li, a post-doc at the Johns Hopkins Agora...
On the State of Sociology, August 2025
ASA President Adia Harvey Wingfield asked me to be on the opening plenary of this year’s conference, on the question of “the current state of sociology.” We had a great group of panelists: David Takeuchi moderating, Lindsay Owens, Alondra Nelson, and Catherine Moran...
Applying to SLACs
It is job market season again. It is harder every year, on average, to get a tenure track job in sociology. Any advice I give is only from my particular perspective and experience. So far as I can tell most if not all of where "merit" matters in academic jobs is who...
The Class Ceiling in the United States – now out in Social Forces
Sam Friedman & I just published an article on The Class Ceiling in the United States in Social Forces. You can access the article at Social Forces here and the preprint if you need it is here. The key finding (as you might guess from the title) is that people from...
Thoughts on Pronoun Go-Rounds from a trans professor (me)
Hello fellow professors & others who might be planning first-day-of-class (or etc) introductions. If you want to be inclusive of trans/non-binary folks, can I suggest (as a trans professor with a lot of trans & non-binary students) including pronouns as...
Voting Intersections: Race, Class, and Participation in Presidential Elections in the United States 2008–2016
Hana Brown, Ankit Rastogi & I published this paper in Sociological Perspectives recently. The full paper is here. If you need access, just let me know. We show that The standard finding about a steep class gradient in voting does not really apply to Black...