Sociologist Kathryn J. “Kathy” Edin, one of the nation’s leading scholars of poverty and inequality, has used qualitative and mixed-method research to investigate aspects of urban poverty not addressed by quantitative work. Through in-depth observations of the lives of low-income families, she has studied the experiences of single mothers on welfare, the reasons fathers disengage from their children’s lives, and the effects of welfare reform on single mothers’ lives. Edin currently co-leads (with Jane Waldfogel) the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal study of outcomes among families with unmarried parents.
Professional positions
- 2017–present: Professor (2017–2020) and William Church Osborn Professor (2020–present) of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
- 2014–2017: Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
- 2007–2013: Professor of public policy and management, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- 2004–2007: Associate to full professor of sociology, University of Pennsylvania
- 2000–2004: Associate professor of sociology, Northwestern University
- 1997–2000: Assistant to associate professor of sociology, University of Pennsylvania
- 1993–1997: Assistant professor of sociology, Rutgers University
Notable publications
- DeLuca, Stefanie, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Kathryn Edin. 2016. Coming of Age in the Other America. Russell Sage Foundation.
- Edin, Kathryn J., and H. Luke Shaefer. 2015. $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
- Edin, Kathryn, and Timothy J. Nelson. 2013. Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City. University of California Press.
- Edin, Kathryn, and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. University of California Press.
Degrees
- PhD, sociology, Northwestern University
- MA, sociology, Northwestern University
- BA, sociology, North Park University
In The ANNALS
- Volume 672, July 2017: “A Qualitative Census of Rural and Urban Poverty” (coauthored with J. Trent Alexander, Robert Andersen, Peter W. Cookson Jr., Jonathan Fisher, David B. Grusky, Marybeth Mattingly, and Charles Varner)
- Volume 654, July 2014: “The Family-Go-Round: Family Complexity and Father Involvement from a Father’s Perspective” (coauthored with Laura Tach, Hope Harvey, and Brielle Bryan)
- Volume 635, May 2011: “The Relationship Contexts of Young Disadvantaged Men” (coauthored with Laura Tach)
- Volume 624, July 2009: “Why Do Poor Men Have Children? Fertility Intentions Among Low-Income Unmarried U.S. Fathers” (coauthored with Jennifer March Augustine and Timothy Nelson)
- Volume 621, January 2009: “Claiming Fatherhood: Race and the Dynamics of Paternal Involvement Among Unmarried Men” (coauthored with Laura Tach and Ronald Mincy)
