Due to the decentralized nature of the U.S. education system and the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts across the nation operated under widely divergent guidelines during the 2020-2021 academic year. Sociologist Leah Ruppanner and her colleagues will examine the broad variation in school reopening following pandemic-related shutdowns and assess its social and financial consequences, with a focus on mothers’ employment.
We know little about the extent to which colorism, the privileging of lighter-skinned over darker-skinned racial minorities, exists in the criminal justice system and how political, economic, or social conditions might contribute to skin tone inequality in punishment outcomes. Using arrest data from the Texas’s Computerized Criminal History system, sociologist Michael Light will analyze all arrests in 254 Texas counties between 2006 and 2018 to examine the extent to which skin tone inequality is a factor in criminal case processing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing social, economic, and racial inequalities, especially those in housing. In response, significant governmental efforts have tried to support housing stability caused by the pandemic through numerous policies. The effects of eviction moratoria and other emergency measures are likely to be highly variable as these policies were issued by multiple levels and branches of government including local and state courts, state and local executives, and legislative bodies and were differentially implemented.
Because of stagnant wages and rising rents, a quarter of all renters spends more than half of their income on housing. In 2016, a time of robust economic growth, 3.7 million eviction cases were filed. This suggests that the pandemic and resulting recession came at a time when millions were already at high risk of eviction. The Eviction Lab’s COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard assesses state-level renter protections on a scale from zero to five stars; 39 states have one star or below.
Inequalities in citizen access to the vote is tied to one’s location in our highly stratified society and differential access to the vote has been associated with voter suppression, unlawful purging of voter rolls, and strict identification requirements. Few scholars, however, have examined the impact of the routine maintenance of voter rolls, mandated by Congress as part of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, on voter access.
Co-funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York
Co-funded by JPB Foundation
This project will evaluate the psychosocial consequences of social mobility among Black Americans. Three research questions will be addressed: First, how does social mobility shape goal-striving stress and life satisfaction among Black Americans? Second, does goal-striving stress explain the link between social mobility and life satisfaction? Third, what factors condition the impact of social mobility on goal-striving stress and life satisfaction?
Poor children and children of color have been systematically denied access to the material resources needed for them to thrive. Yet preschool quality hinges on teachers—workers in an industry with high stress, high turnover, and low wages. Further, preschools are segregated by race and class. How does segregation shape teachers' experiences and decisions in preschool classrooms? This project will focus on 60 preschools in Denver, Colorado.