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Amanda Pallais awarded tenure in Economics

February 23, 2018

Harvard Economics | Amanda Pallais, formerly Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy  and Social Studies, has been promoted to Professor of Economics. Palliais studies the labor market performance and educational investment decisions of  disadvantaged and socially excluded groups. Pallais's research has shown how manager bias can depress the job performance of minorities, how the cost of developing a reputation can make it difficult for young workers to enter the labor market, how marriage market concerns can lead women to invest less in labor market success, and how financial aid can increase the educational attainment of low-income students.



Alexandra Killewald to receive William Julius Wilson Early Career Award

May 30, 2019

Awardee | Harvard's Alexandra Killewald, Professor of Sociology, is the 2019 recipient of the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility. The award recognizes a scholar who has made major contributions within 10 years of receiving the degree and will be conferred in August at the ASA Annual Meeting in New York City.



Alexandra Killewald and Brielle Bryan: ASA Award for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Population

August 15, 2019

Awardees | Alexandra Killewald and Brielle Bryan PhD 2018 received the American Sociological Association's Population Section Award for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship for "Falling Behind: The Role of Inter- and Intragenerational Processes in Widening Racial and Ethnic Wealth Gaps through Early and Middle Adulthood," published in Social Forces in 2018. Alexandra Killewald is Professor of Sociology. Brielle Bryan earned her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy in 2018 and is now Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rice University.

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21 intriguing new ideas and trailblazing people

January 4, 2017

The Boston Globe | Harvard sociologist and MacArthur Fellow Matthew Desmond, for his "on the ground observations of the daily lives of the American poor."



2017 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Winner Announced

May 8, 2017

Awardee | Matthew Desmond receives 2017 top honor for Evicted, announced today by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights. Desmond is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard.
 



2016 Discover Great New Writers Awards: Matthew Desmond

March 1, 2017

Awardee | The winners of the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards in fiction and nonfiction were announced today in a ceremony in New York City. Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City took first place in the non-fiction category. Desmond is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard.



'Our Kids' selected for Books of the Year 2015

December 3, 2015

The Economist | Robert Putnam's, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, described as "thoughtful and persuasive", has been selected by The Economist as one of the best books of 2015.  Also making the list, Inequality: What Can Be Done?, by Anthony Atkinson (University of Oxford).



'Lives in Limbo' is a finalist for C. Wright Mills Award

May 12, 2017

Society for the Study of Social Problems | The Society for the Study of Social Problems announced its five finalists for its 2016 C. Wright Mills Award, including Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America, by Roberto G. Gonzales, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The prestigious C. Wright Mills Award recognizes the most outstanding book  that "advances social scientific understanding" on "an issue of contemporary public importance." The winner will be announced on August 12, 2017, at the annual meeting of the... Read more about 'Lives in Limbo' is a finalist for C. Wright Mills Award



'Evicted' wins National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction

March 16, 2017

Matthew Desmond, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, was recognized tonight with the 2016 National Books Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.

"Just a few books have reframed the national conversation about poverty: How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York by Jacob Riis, The Other America by Michael Harrington, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America by Alex Kotlowitz," wrote NBCC board member Elizabeth Taylor.

"With his ground-breaking book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond now forcefully shapes our understanding of poverty. His focus is on the dynamics of poverty, and with remarkable clarity explains why solutions directed at joblessness or low wages reflect a misunderstanding of the problem. He eloquently argues: poverty is a product of exploitation, and that eviction not just a condition of it but rather a cause of it."



'Evicted' Selected to 2017 PEN Literary Awards Longlist

December 9, 2016

PEN America | Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, is one of 10 books on the 2017 PEN America longlist in nonfiction for the John Kenneth Galbraith award. Finalists for this biennial award will be announced on January 18, 2017. The winner will be announced on February 22, 2017 and honored at the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 27, 2017. Desmond is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Science at Harvard.

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