UPDATE: Since 2020, I have been Director of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Please visit my Princeton site for future updates.
My research seeks to understand how political and economic institutions pattern inequalities of wealth, power, and legitimacy. I in turn study how these inequalities influence the relationship between state and market. I use quantitative and qualitative methods in my research. No matter the method I choose, I am committed to finding original, untapped data sources. By using data that have not previously been analyzed by sociologists, I am able to bring novel insights to core sociological concerns around stratification and inequality.
Substantively, my work has focused on populist politics and the rise of corporate capitalism in the United States. I have also researched globalization, class voting, corporate regulation, and the eviction crisis. After graduating from Chicago, I worked as a research associate for the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center.
Publications
2024
Gershenson, Carl and Matthew Desmond. 2024. “Eviction and the Rental Housing Crisis in Rural America.” Rural Sociology.
Gershenson, Carl, Olivia Jin, Jacob Haas, and Matthew Desmond. 2024. “Fracking Evictions: Housing Insecurity in a North Dakota Boom Town.” Society and Natural Resources.
2023
Graetz, Nicholas, Carl Gershenson, Sonya R. Porter, Danielle H. Sandler, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Rent Burden, Eviction, and Premature Death in the United States.” Social Science and Medicine.
Graetz, Nicholas, Carl Gershenson, Peter Hepburn, Sonya R. Porter, Danielle H. Sandler, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “A Comprehensive Demographic Profile of the United States Evicted Population.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(41):1-6.
2020
Gershenson, Carl. 2020. “The Creation of Class Politics in 19th Century Massachusetts.” Social Science History 44(4): 697-723.
2019
Gershenson, Carl. 2019. “Reputation as Organizational Resource: The SEC’s Failed Regulatory Revolution.” Sociological Forum 34(3): 643-663.
2018
Levine, Jeremy, Theo Leenman, Carl Gershenson, and David Hureau. 2018. "Political Places: Neighborhood Social Organization and The Ecology of Political Behaviors." Social Science Quarterly 99(1): 201-215.
2017
Desmond, Matthew and Carl Gershenson. 2017. "Who Gets Evicted? Assessing Individual, Neighborhood, and Network Factors." Social Science Research 62: 362-377.
2016
Desmond, Matthew and Carl Gershenson. 2016. "Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor." Social Problems 63(1):46-67.
Greenberg, Deena, Carl Gershenson, and Matthew Desmond. 2016. "Discrimination in Evictions: Empirical Evidence and Legal Challenges." Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 51(1):115-158.
2015
Gershenson, Carl. 2015. "Protecting Markets from Society: Non-Pecuniary Claims in American Corporate Democracy." Politics & Society 43(1):33-60.
Desmond, Matthew, Carl Gershenson, and Barbara Kiviat. 2015. "Forced Mobility and Residential Instability among Urban Renters." Social Service Review 89(2): 227-262.
Gershenson, Carl and Frank Dobbin. 2015. "Institutions and the Economy," in Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
2014
Levine, Jeremy and Carl Gershenson. 2014. “From Political to Material Inequality: Race, Immigration, and Requests for Public Goods.” Sociological Forum 29(3): 607-627.
2011
Kim, Jibum, Carl Gershenson, Patrick Glaser, Tom W. Smith. 2011. “Trends in Surveys on Surveys.” Public Opinion Quarterly 75(1): 165-191.
2008
Kim, Jibum, Carl Gershenson, Jaeki Jeong, and Tom W. Smith. 2008. “How Americans Think about North Korea: 2000-2007.” Public Opinion Quarterly 72(4): 804-821.
Education
Ph.D. Harvard University
A.B. University of Chicago
Select Awards and Recognition
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2010-2013)
Tobin Project Fellow in Democracy & Markets (2012-2013)
Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Advanced Quantitative Methods (2010)