My research lies broadly at the intersection of inequality, stratification, and the sociology of the family, and it further draws upon and contributes to scholarship in economic sociology, religion, social demography, education, and social policy. Some recent projects have investigated family structure and parenting, income inequality and parenting, families moving to put their children in better schools, and the buffering effects of religion on happiness when people lose their jobs. Methodologically, I use quantitative and computational methods, and I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on research design and quantitative methods.
PhD in Sociology, 2017
University of California, Berkeley
MA in Sociology, 2013
University of California, Berkeley
BS in Physics, 2007
Rice University
BA in Mathematics, 2007
Rice University
There are larger class gaps in parental investments during the summer and among families with younger children. Joe LaBriola and I examine this (and more) in “The Summer Parental Investment Gap? Socioeconomic Gaps in the Seasonality of Parental Expenditures and Time with School-age Children” that is published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. (Nov 2023)
Tenured and promoted to Associate Professor! (July 2023)
My new paper “Linking Individual and Collective Social Capital: Operationalization, Association, and Sociodemographic Heterogeneity” with Shawna Bendeck is now published in Sociological Spectrum. (Feb 2023)
My new data visualization article “Parental Investments of Money for White, Black, and Hispanic Children in the United States” is now published in Socius. (June 2022)
Received a Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS) research grant from the Social Science Research Council to support my project “What’s a Parent to do? Measuring Parenting Approaches in the US with Topic Modeling for Short Texts” with Luca Maria Pesando. (March 2022)
My new article “Family Structure and Inequalities in Parents’ Financial Investments in Children” with Daniel Schneider in the Journal of Marriage and Family is now published. (May 2021)
My new article “Happiness in Hard Times: Does Religion Buffer the Negative Effect of Unemployment on Happiness?” with Kassandra Roeser has now been published in Social Forces. (Nov 2020)
The Urban Institute’s Housing Matters posted a summary of my recently published research with Adam Goldstein on how school quality shapes how much parent’s are willing to spend on housing. (Jan 2020)
A new essay in The Conversation summarizes my recent work with Daniel Schneider on family structure and parenting. (Sept 2019)
“Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments in Children” published in the American Sociological Review has been awarded the ASA Family Section Article of the Year. (June 2019)
In higher inequality places, it costs more to live in areas with good schools. Adam Goldstein and I show this (and more) in our new paper “Buying In: Positional Competition, Schools, Income Inequality, and Housing Consumption in Sociological Science. (May 2019)
My new paper “Who Feels It? Income Inequality, Relative Deprivation, and Financial Satisfaction in U.S. States, 1973–2012” has now been published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. (Feb 2019)
Research from “Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments in Children” was described in a New York Times article on “The Relentlessness of Modern Parenting”. (Dec 2018)
I am a winner of the Tobin Project 2018 Prize for Exemplary Work on Inequality and Decision Making. This prize recognizes research with Daniel Schneider and Joe LaBriola on “Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments in Children” recently published in the American Sociological Review. (Oct 2018)
My work with Daniel Schneider is being supported with a US 2050 Grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and Ford Foundation to explore how family structure and class shape parental investments in children. (Aug 2018)
“Income Inequality and Household Labor” published in Social Forces has been awarded the ASA Family Section Article of the Year. (Aug 2018)
My new paper “Less Equal, Less Trusting? Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Effects of Income Inequality on Trust in U.S. States, 1973–2012” is now available at Social Science Research. (June 2018)
Details Article (free access) SocArXiv Preprint Supplement Data & Code
I grew up near Austin, TX, and then studied physics and math as an undergraduate at Rice University. My research interests shifted from the natural world to the social, and I earned my PhD in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. I am now at Colorado State University where I do research and teach as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. I am a husband to Michelle and dad to three boys. Whenever possible, I enjoy running (sometimes really, really far), climbing, biking, and skiing. I sporadically document these adventures on Instagram and Strava.