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Ryan Parsons
University of Mississippi
Visiting Scholar
2026 to 2027
Parsons will examine the growing role of disability benefit programs—Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)—within the U.S. social safety net, particularly in rural regions experiencing long-term economic decline. While these programs were originally designed to address health-related work limitations, they have evolved into one of the largest sources of cash assistance for low-income Americans.
Eric Patashnik
Brown University
Visiting Scholar
2024 to 2025
Patashnik will examine the federal government’s performance as a problem-solving institution. Drawing on theories of political failure and a historical review of problem-solving activities across domestic issues, including education, environment, and healthcare, Patashnik will write a book about the contemporary policy state and how government’s capacity to frame and address important societal problems can be improved.
John Patty
Emory University
Visiting Scholar
2025 to 2026
Patty and Elizabeth Penn will examine how algorithms that classify people, such as the FICO credit score and Equivant’s COMPAS recidivism risk scoring algorithm, shape individual behavior and social outcomes. Their research will address questions such as how society should regulate algorithms and how issues of individual liberty and privacy should shape such regulations. They will utilize game theoretic modeling, interviews, and historical analysis of classification algorithms for their project.
Anne R. Pebley
University of California, Los Angeles
Visiting Scholar
2018 to 2019
Pebley and Noreen Goldman will analyze longitudinal data on Latino health outcomes, focusing on how factors such as documentation status and occupational segregation affect the physical wellbeing of immigrants and native-born Latinos. They will also examine the extent to which the recession affected immigrants’ health and the extent to which the risk of deportation for undocumented individuals changed during the Obama administration. Pebley will also explore how drug-related violence in Central America shapes patterns of immigration to the U.S.
Elizabeth Penn
Emory University
Visiting Scholar
2025 to 2026
Penn and John Patty will examine how algorithms that classify people, such as the FICO credit score and Equivant’s COMPAS recidivism risk scoring algorithm, shape individual behavior and social outcomes. Their research will address questions such as how society should regulate algorithms and how issues of individual liberty and privacy should shape such regulations. They will utilize game theoretic modeling, interviews, and historical analysis of classification algorithms for their project.
Lisandro Perez
Florida International University
Visiting Scholar
1997 to 1998
Lisandro Perez, associate professor of sociology and anthropology and Director, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University, employed an intergenerational study of Cubans in southern Florida to assess the extent to which the extraordinary success of the first generation will be repeated in the next. Perez looked at apparent erosions in the social and economic conditions that favored the first generation of Cubans in Florida, including high female labor force participation, extended family households, and the creation of an economic immigrant enclave.
Krista M. Perreira
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Visiting Scholar
2008 to 2009
Krista M. Perreira, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will synthesize six years of research into a comprehensive book on Latino immigration to the American South. Focusing on what we can learn about “new” immigrant destinations, Perreira will assess the migration and acculturation experiences of Latino youth and their parents in the South. Perreira will also evaluate how non-Latino youth and their families are responding to the recent influx of Latino immigrants.
Samuel Perry
University of Oklahoma
Visiting Scholar
2026 to 2027
Perry will integrate data from over a dozen recent national surveys with a careful reading of Christian nationalist authors to examine how Christian nationalist rhetoric and ideology – a set of beliefs about America’s fundamentally Christian identity and social order – helps perpetuate economic inequality in the United States.
Becky Pettit
University of Washington
Visiting Scholar
2003 to 2004
Becky Pettit, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Washington, will pursue two projects on the role of institutional factors on labor market opportunities and patterns of inequality. Pettit's first project examines the role the prison system plays in perpetuating racial and class inequality in employment and earnings by examining data on inmates' post-release employment histories compared with those of non-inmates. Pettit's second project will examine cross-country variation in women's labor force participation.
Jo Carol Phelan
Columbia University
Visiting Scholar
2012 to 2013
Phelan will examine the link between health and race, gender, and immigrant status. She will also explore the effects of stigma on behavior and the relevance of implicit attitudes to labels like “mentally ill” and “low education.” She will also consider what role “essentialism” plays in stigma.
Justin Phillips
Columbia University
Visiting Scholar
2009 to 2010
Justin Phillips, assistant professor of political science at Columbia University, will collaborate with Leah Brooks, assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto, in a working group examining how neighborhood conditions and community organizations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit are related to the political processes behind city redistributive policies. Specifically, the study will examine whether voter support of a particular politician influences the subsequent allocation of Community Development Block Grants.
Kim Phillips-Fein
New York University
Visiting Scholar
2020 to 2021
Phillips-Fein will work on a book analyzing the various defenses of economic inequality advanced by American business leaders and economic writers who wrote accounts of capitalism for a wide public audience. Her historical narrative will explore the various ways members of the elite wrote about economic inequality, and the arguments they advanced in its defense. Among those profiled are Andrew Carnegie, Alfred P. Sloan, Henry Ford and Sam Walton.
Francesca Polletta
Columbia University
Visiting Scholar
2004 to 2005
Francesca Polletta, Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, will study public deliberations on the rebuilding of lower Manhattan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City in order to examine the effectiveness of such community forums in policymaking. Based on participant surveys following online and in-person meetings, she will examine the impact of these deliberative processes on public policy decisions and people's long-term civic participation.
Francesca Polletta
University of California, Irvine
Visiting Scholar
2018 to 2019
Polletta and Edwin Amenta will study the ways in which social movements have transformed culture and everyday life. Drawing from interviews, public polls, and media coverage of social movements such as the civil rights movement, gay and lesbian activism, movements around abortion, and anti-tax and anti-welfare movements, they will examine movements’ impact on public opinion, institutions such as medicine and higher education, and the cultural assumptions guiding policymakers.
Jonas Pontusson
Cornell University
Visiting Scholar
2004 to 2005
Jonas Pontusson will develop a project exploring the political consequences of economic inequality, addressing its effects on policy preferences, politics, interest groups, and mobilization in several countries. Specifically, he will explore how rising wage inequality affects the ability of unions to aggregate interests and mobilize their members politically.
Samuel L. Popkin
University of California, San Diego
Visiting Scholar
2008 to 2009
Samuel L. Popkin, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, will complete a book on the history of presidential campaign strategy and decision-making. Popkin will trace the history of critical campaign decisions from 1948 onwards. He has completed archival research for the book and has interviewed strategists and pollsters from all campaigns since 1960.
Brian Powell
Indiana University
Visiting Scholar
2017 to 2018
Powell will work on a book on how Americans view access to higher education. Drawing from interviews and six years of data collection on views of higher education, he will investigate the extent to which the public believes college access should be expanded, and what role the government, families, and students should play in funding higher education. He will also analyze how public opinion has contributed to the formulation of education policies.
Monica Prasad
Northwestern University
Visiting Scholar
2015 to 2016
Prasad will write a book on the origins of the tax-cut movement, looking at how the decline of progressive taxation in the U.S. contributed to the revitalization of the Republican Party in the aftermath of Watergate. She will explore how the decline of progressive taxation and an unwillingness on the part of the political system to tolerate high tax rates on the wealthy has contributed to rising inequality. Using recently released archival sources, she will focus on the importance of tax cuts to the conservative resurgence, an issue that has been understudied in previous literature.
Harriet Presser
University of Maryland
Visiting Scholar
1998 to 1999
Harriet B. Presser, Distinguished University Professor and director, Center on Population, Gender, and Social Inequality, at the University of Maryland, is preparing a comprehensive assessment of the trend toward a twenty-four hour economy and its effect on American employment. Increasing numbers of Americans now work non-standard hours, including weekend, evening, night, and "split-shift" schedules, and such employment disproportionately involves women, minorities, and low-skill workers.
Anne E. Preston
State University of New York, Stony Brook
Visiting Scholar
1997 to 1998
Anne E. Preston, associate professor at the W. Averell Harriman School for Management and Policy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, explored the reasons for the dearth of women in professional scientific and engineering careers. Even among the relatively few women who receive scientific educations, many eventually cut short their careers. Preston analyzed the employment experiences of men and women in the sciences to determine whether the factors motivating occupational success or exit vary by gender.