Collegiate Affiliation

Ethan is a cultural sociologist who studies how people and groups struggle against institutions and toward structural agency within ordinary daily settings. In his dissertation research, these efforts have followed three related, but distinct phenomena in the Twin Cities transportation field. First, he has examined how advocates and professionals who have become embedded in state-institutions struggle in daily institutional settings to advance a more climate and equity friendly future in their work pushing for better non-car transportation infrastructure and policy. Secondly, he has documented the daily anxieties and and lack of agency experienced by those regularly moving about without a car in the Twin Cities, demonstrating the immense pressure dominant car-based transportation infrastructure puts on non-motorists. Thirdly, he has explicated the anti-racism and climate activism advanced through highway removal advocacy in the Twin Cities, showing how such movements disrupt the white racial frame and challenge the mundane material foundations of racial inequality in the United States.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • BA: Sociology and English, Macalester College, 2014
  • MA: Sociology , University of Minnesota, 2018

Specialties

  • Culture
  • Social Movements
  • Anti-racism
  • Urban Sociology
  • Social Practice
  • Transportation