Stanford Sociology welcomes four new faculty members

The Sociology department has strengthened its focus on understanding the dynamics of inequality in society with the additions of Professors Jeremy Freese and Florencia Torche, and Assistant Professors David Pedulla and Jackelyn Hwang.

Jeremy Freese joined the faculty in January 2016 and, as the co-leader of the Health Disparities Working Group for the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences, is already stepping into leadership positions on campus. Students also can look forward to Freese’s new undergraduate class in the fall: Sport, Competition and Society (Soc 8).

David Pedulla joins the faculty in July. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2014 and previously taught at the University of Texas-Austin. Pedulla’s award-winning research examines the consequences of non-standard, contingent and precarious employment for workers’ well-being, and race and gender stratification in the labor market.

Florencia Torche joins the faculty in September and brings valuable international perspective through her research in Latin America, including Chile and Mexico. Her substantive interests focus on the persistence of inequality across generations, examining such factors as early life exposures to environmental stressors, educational attainment, assortative mating, and the intergenerational transmission of wealth.

Jackelyn Hwang will join the faculty in September 2017 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Hwang received her PhD from Harvard University in 2015 and her research focuses on race, immigration, gentrification, and residential stratification in U.S. cities.