Fenaba Addo

Fenaba Addo is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina. Her research focuses on debt and wealth inequality, particularly examining how family dynamics, higher education financing, and union formation influence economic well-being and health disparities. She has a strong emphasis on racial disparities, exploring how systemic factors perpetuate wealth gaps between Black and White populations in the U.S.

Her work bridges sociology and public policy, analyzing topics like student debt trajectories, intergenerational poverty reduction, and the intersection of race with wealth accumulation. She has contributed to special issues on families’ financial lives and authored key papers on racial wealth gaps, student loan crises among Black borrowers, and the role of wealth in maternal health outcomes.

Addo’s research highlights policy implications for addressing systemic inequities. She has explored pathways to middle-class attainment in young adulthood, the impact of parental wealth on student debt burdens, and how economic strain affects health outcomes. While her work spans multiple decades, her recent focus (2022–2025) emphasizes contemporary crises like pandemic-driven economic shocks and policy interventions to reduce wealth disparities.

Though no formal awards or grants are listed in the provided text, her prolific publication record and focus on pressing social issues underscore her contributions to sociological scholarship. She advises no named students in the provided data but maintains an active research agenda with collaborative potential in wealth inequality studies.