This grant is co-funded with the Carnegie Corporation

Achieving markers of adulthood, such as completing one’s education and attaining financial independence, is taking longer now than it has for previous generations. Sociologist Dialika Sall will examine how race, class, and immigrant background intersect and shape the transition to adulthood for second-generation West African youth. For her study, she will conduct follow-up interviews with participants whom she previously interviewed between 2015 and 2018 while they were in high school.

Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has seen an increasing share of national income going to the top one percent of earners. At the same time, there have been few substantial policy efforts to moderate rising inequality. While some states have passed millionaire taxes, federal tax rates on the rich have been decreasing for decades. Former President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) bill directly cut taxes for the rich. It also made it more costly for states to tax the rich by limiting the federal deduction for state and local taxes.

Renters are spending increasing proportions of their incomes on rent and their constrained rental options often expose them to exploitative landlords and substandard housing. However, the experiences of American Indian (AI)/Alaska Native (AN) and Hispanic renters outside of large cities have not been studied. Sociologies Elizabeth Krover-Glenn, Junia Howell, and Ellen M. Whitehead will examine the extent to which rental property management practices differ across residents, neighborhoods, and cities.

Racial and ethnic segregation has resulted in persisting wealth gaps between White Americans and Black Americans. Previous literature on the causes and consequences of racial/ethnic residential segregation has focused on the late 20th century, and little is known about patterns of segregation prior to 1940. Sociologist John R. Logan will use census data and historical GIS maps to examine patterns of segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas from 1900 to 1970.

Scholars have analyzed White Americans’ attitudes toward other racial and ethnic groups as well as what they think about their own group’s status. However, little is known about how Whites understand whiteness. Sociologist James M. Thomas will examine how White southerners’ who came of age during the major social, political, and economic events of the last three decades understand the American racial hierarchy and their place within it.

Racial discrimination by police is one of the most pressing domestic policy issues of our time. Most literature on officer behavior has focused on how characteristics such as race, gender, age, and experience impact officer decision making. However, less is known about the role peers and networks play in influencing officer behavior. Sociologist Gerard Torrats-Espinosa will conduct research across five U.S. cities to examine how diversity in the workplace, peer influences, and officer networks impact officers’ behavior when they come into contact with citizens.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people lost their jobs. At the same time, online microtask platforms – web-based labor platforms that allow businesses and individuals to outsource tasks to a workforce who can complete tasks virtually – seemed to thrive and the number of workers engaged in microtasks for online platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is growing. However, few researchers have focused on this type of gig work.