Hello! I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and an Exchange Scholar at Harvard University. I’m also the Blog Editor for Contexts, the public-facing magazine of the American Sociological Association, and co-host of a sociology podcast called Moral Matters.

I study culture and inequality, focusing on social class, families, higher education, and the transition to adulthood. My dissertation, which received the ESS Rose Laub Coser Dissertation Proposal Award, examines how young adult college graduates (aged 27 – 33) and their parents understand and negotiate parental support at this life stage. My advisors are Hyunjoon Park, Wendy Roth, Emily Hannum, and Michèle Lamont.

The inspiration for my dissertation stemmed from my previous study, which looked at college students’ relationships with their parents in the wake of COVID-19 campus closures (you can find my JMF article here and watch an interview with Contexts here). These interviews also inspired two collaborative projects that use data collected during the pandemic to examine (1) intergenerational co-residence as a private safety net for young adults (with Arielle Kuperberg and Joanie Mazelis) and (2) the racialized consequences of a restrictive COVID-19 behavioral policy at a liberal arts college (with Alanna Gillis). Articles from these projects are currently under review.

Another line of my research examines culture and inequality through the lens of religious institutions. One ongoing project with Evan Stewart examines the intersections of religion, race/racism, and vaccine hesitancy. Another collaborative project (with Melissa Wilde and Tessa Huttenlocher) uses historical census data to quantify wealth inequality across religious groups. In previous work, I studied multifaith chaplaincy on elite college campuses (with Wendy Cadge) and interfaith dialogue in the wake of the 2016 presidential election (with Roman Williams).