Robin Bartram

Robin Bartram is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Chicago's Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, with secondary affiliations in the Department of Sociology and Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies. She holds a PhD and MA in Sociology from Northwestern University and an MA from Loyola University Chicago. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at Tulane University.

Her research examines how housing policies and built environments reproduce urban inequality, with focus areas including: building inspection systems, environmental justice, housing dilapidation, and the intersection of criminal justice with housing policy. Her work emphasizes material aspects of inequality and policy implementation gaps.

Analysis of her 14 most recent publications (2016-2025) reveals consistent themes: 1) Critical examination of housing inspection systems and code enforcement, 2) Intersections of property law with racial/gender inequality, 3) Environmental justice implications of urban decay, and 4) Historical analyses of housing policy impacts. Methodologically, she combines urban ethnography, policy analysis, and sociolegal frameworks.

Awards:

• Max Weber Distinguished Book Award (2024) for Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality

Bartram actively engages in public scholarship, recently participating in a National Public Housing Museum panel on housing equity. Her current book project investigates aging housing stock in Chicago and New Orleans through the lenses of health equity and environmental justice.