Maria Krysan, PhD
LAS Distinguished Professor
Sociology
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Contact
Building & Room:
4140D BSB
Address:
1007 W Harrison St.
Office Phone:
Email:
CV Download:
About
Research Interests: racial residential segregation, racial attitudes, survey methods, multi-methods
Recent Courses:
- Sociology 501: Sociological Research Methods (2nd semester)
- Sociology 509: Survey Research Methods
Maria Krysan (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1995), is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Senior Scholar at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. She focuses her research on racial residential segregation and racial attitudes. Her investigations of these substantive issues often connect to methodological questions about how to study this sensitive area of social life. She combines standard closed-ended survey analysis with mode of administration experiments, analyses of open-ended survey questions, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. Her most recent book, with co-author Kyle Crowder, is Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification (Russell Sage Foundation, 2017). In this award-winning book, the authors draw on in-depth interviews, large-scale survey data, and previously published research to propose an innovative framework for understanding the causes of racial residential segregation. Krysan is co-editor (with Amanda Lewis) of an edited volume with Amanda Lewis (The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004), and a co-author (with H. Schuman, L. Bobo and C. Steeh) of the book Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations (Harvard University Press, Revised Edition, 1997). She is also responsible for a website that updates the data from that book. Her research has also appeared in a range of journals, including the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, The DuBois Review, Demography, Social Problems, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Population Research and Policy Review, and others. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Russell Sage Foundation, and Ford Foundation. Krysan serves on the editorial board of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of Social Science Research and Social Problems and has been a member of the Board of Overseers of the General Social Survey.
Dr. Krysan was the Director and co-Founder of the Chicago Area Study (2006-2014), which was a funding and training opportunity for UIC graduate students and faculty members that provided cutting-edge, original social science research about the Chicago area to scholars, community-based practitioners, and public policy analysts.
Krysan regularly engages with the media, having had press coverage in outlets including Chicago Public Radio, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, Slate.com, HLN/CNN, CityLab, WGN Radio, Vox.com, TeenVogue, and many others. Krysan also frequently presents her work to community leaders, government agencies, advocates, and the like, both sharing her expertise with, and learning from, her conversations with these audiences.