In this panel moderated by Professor of Sociology at Stanford, Tomás Jimenez, participants analyze measures of inequality in America and its role in the 2016 presidential election. David Grusky, Professor of Sociology at Stanford, discusses various forms of income inequality and Donald Trump's message of restoring advantages to those who feel they have lost an edge. Sean Reardon, Professor of Education at Stanford, outlines an educational policy agenda for the next president focusing on how residential and school segregation impede equal opportunity. Lastly, Dominique Apollon, research director of Race Forward, describes workers experiences with discrimination and argues for improvements in the reactive system but also considers proactive measures.
David Grusky is Barbara Kimball Browning Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, and coeditor of Pathways Magazine. His research addresses the changing structure of late-industrial inequality and addresses such topics as (a) the role of rent-seeking and market failure in explaining the takeoff in income inequality, (b) the amount of economic and social mobility in the U.S. and other high-inequality countries (with a particular focus on the “Great Gatsby” hypothesis that opportunities for social mobility are declining), (c) the role of essentialism in explaining the persistence of extreme gender inequality, (d) the forces behind recent changes in the amount of face-to-face and online cross-class contact, and (e) the putative decline of big social classes. He is also involved in projects to improve the country’s infrastructure for monitoring poverty, inequality, and mobility by exploiting administrative and other forms of “big data” more aggressively. His recent books include Social Stratification (2014), Occupy the Future (2013), The New Gilded Age (2012), The Great Recession(2011), The Inequality Reader (2011), and The Inequality Puzzle (2010).
Sean Reardon is a Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education and Professor (by courtesy) of Sociology; Director, Stanford Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Program in Quantitative Education Policy Analysis. His research focuses on the causes, patterns, trends, and consequences of social and educational inequality, the effects of educational policy on educational and social inequality, and in applied statistical methods for educational research. In addition, he develops methods of measuring social and educational inequality (including the measurement of segregation and achievement gaps) and methods of causal inference in educational and social science research. He teaches graduate courses in applied statistical methods, with a particular emphasis on the application of experimental and quasi-experimental methods to the investigation of issues of educational policy and practice. Sean received his doctorate in education in 1997 from Harvard University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education, and has been a recipient of a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award, a Carnegie Scholar Award, and a National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellowship. Work frequently highlighted in major national publications.
Dominique Apollon is Research Director at Race Forward, an organization that advances racial justice through research, media, and practice. He has examined the distribution of toxic wastes in the state of California from 1989-1999, as well as the corresponding grassroots political activity and participation. Dom has taught undergraduate seminars on the politics of race/ethnicity at Stanford University and Santa Clara University, and served as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Bakersfield, where he taught courses on U.S. Constitutional Law, Introductory American Politics, Environmental Politics, Congress, and the Presidency from 2004-2007. He received his doctorate in political science from Stanford University in 2003. He has co-authored such Race Forward reports as Don't Call them "Post-Racial": Millennials Attitudes on Race, Racism and Key Systems in Our Society (June 2011), The Color of Food (February 2011), Better Together: Research Findings on the Relationship between Racial Justice Organizations and LGBT Communities (September 2010), Underprotected, Undersupported: Low-Income Children at Risk (April 2009), and Check the Color Line - 2009 Income Report (February 2009).
