| 1 | Name: | Dr. Kathryn Edin | |
| Institution: | Princeton University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2023 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 301. Anthropology, Demography, Psychology, and Sociology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1962 | ||
Kathryn Edin is the William Church Osborne Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where she serves as the Director of the Center on Research and Child Wellbeing. Edin’s research has taken on key mysteries about poverty that have not been fully answered by prior research: How do single mothers possibly survive on welfare? Why don’t more go to work? Why do they end up as single mothers in the first place? Where are the fathers and why do they disengage from their children’s lives? How have the lives of the single mothers changed as a result of welfare reform? The hallmark of her research is her direct, in-depth observations of the lives of low-income women, men, and children. After a career of studying some of America’s most disadvantaged people, she has now turned her attention to America’s most disadvantaged places, blending big data analysis, ethnography, and historical analysis to uncover the legacies of poverty in America. She is the author of 9 books, including the forthcoming The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the legacies of Poverty in America, co-authored with H. Luke Shaefer and Timothy Nelson, and $2 a Day: Living on Virtually Nothing in America, co-authored with H. Luke Shaefer. It was included in The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015, cited as "essential reporting about the rise in destitute families." | |||