Inequalities & Culture

The study of inequality at the University of Minnesota incorporates an analysis of the meaning, making, and significance of racial, ethnic, and other boundaries. Research in this area of specialization documents patterns of discrimination and prejudice in policies and practices, and unpacks the mechanisms by which these inequalities are perpetuated and reproduced. Associated faculty members and students also consider how these dimensions of difference can become important sources of community, identification, and collective action.

Faculty’s research interests include:

  • The settlement experiences of African Muslim migrant groups
  • Inequalities in youth activities, including sports, migration, multiculturalism, and incorporation
  • Race in connection with electoral politics, social class, pedagogy, and the body
  • Social construction of race, particularly in terms of racial categorization choices made by and for people of mixed heritage
  • Identity among young adult children of immigrants and parenting practices of second generation Asian Americans
  • Race, nation, and citizenship
  • Ethnicity and neighborhood boundaries
  • Atheists as "other"
  • Religious discrimination
  • Same-sex marriage and perceptions of the LGBT rights movement
  • Homelessness
  • Family capital and the invisible transfer of privilege
  • The history of race and class in the United States
  • Crime, punishment, and inequality

Interdisciplinary partners include:

Check out recent faculty publications
on ethnicity and race.

Recent initiatives and events:

Faculty conducting research in this core sociological field belong to a large range of American Sociological Association sections and interdisciplinary organizations, such as the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Associated faculty: Cawo Abdi, Ed Cornelius, Penny Edgell, Michael Esposito, Laura Garbes, Joseph Gerteis, 
Nick Graetz, Douglas Hartmann, Kathleen Hull, Carolyn Liebler, Enid Logan, Natalia Otto, 
Michelle Phelps, Teresa Swartz, Christopher Uggen, Jane VanHeuvelen, Tom VanHeuvelen, Michael L Walker

Our faculty share a commitment with the University to value a diversity of viewpoints and experiences, and to strive to provide a productive work environment for all University of Minnesota scholars from varying racial, ethnic, religious, social class, sexual identity, and national backgrounds.