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:
- African and African American Studies
- American Studies
- Asian American Studies
- Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
- Immigration History Research Center
Recent initiatives and events:
- The American Mosaic Project
- Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Graduate Student Group
- Public Event- “After Ferguson: Police Brutality and Citizen Activism”
- Teaching Talk on Mentoring Students of Color
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