As of July 1, 2017, Prof. Desmond is Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. You can find his new contact information here.
Matthew Desmond is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and codirector of the Justice and Poverty Project. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. His primary teaching and research interests include urban sociology, poverty, race and ethnicity, organizations and work, social theory, and ethnography.
Desmond is the author of four books: On the Fireline: Living and Dying with WIldland Firefighters (2007), Race in America (with Mustafa Emirbayer, 2015), The Racial Order (with Mustafa Emirbayer, 2015), and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016). He also is the editor of the inaugural issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, Volumes 1 & 2: Severe Deprivation in America (2015).
Desmond has written essays on educational inequality, dangerous work, political ideology, race and social theory, and the inner-city housing market. Recently, he has published on the prevalence and consequences of eviction and the low-income rental market, network-based survival strategies among the urban poor, and the consequences of new crime control policies on inner-city women in the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Demography. Click here for a full list of publications.
The principal investigator of the Milwaukee Area Renters Study, an original survey of tenants in Milwaukee’s low-income private housing sector, Desmond's work has been supported by the Ford, Russell Sage, and National Science Foundations, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
In 2015, Desmond was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” grant.
Reviews of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
- New York Times review by Jennifer Senior
- The New York Review of Books review by Jason DeParle
Recent Media Coverage
- Sociologist opens door on devastating effects of evictions, Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
- A Harvard Sociologist on Watching Families Lose Their Homes, New York Times
- Electing to Neglect the Poorest of the Poor, New York Times
- Turning Domestic Abuse Victims into 'Nuisances,' Aljazeera America
- Evictions Soar in Hot Market; Renters Suffer, New York Times
- Evictions: A Hidden Scourge for Black Women, Washington Post
- Victims' Dilemma: 911 Call Can Bring Eviction, New York Times
- Domestic Violence Victims in Milwaukee Faced Eviction for Calling Police, Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
- American Affordable Housing Crisis, ABC News
- Exploiting the Urban Poor, Books and Ideas
- Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery? New York Times
- A Sight All Too Familiar in Poor Neighborhoods, New York Times
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'On the Fireline' Author Recalls Life as a Wildland Firefighter, Christian Science Monitor
Recent Editorials
- Tipping the Scales in Eviction Court, New York Times
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Fighting Wildfires, Processing Death, New York Times
Photos by Michael Kienitz