معرفی
Gretchen Purser is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She also serves as Director of the Law, Society and Policy Integrated Learning Major, Research Co-Director of Advocacy and Activism, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry and PARCC (Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration). Her research focuses on precarious work, urban poverty, and housing struggles, employing ethnographic and community-based methodologies. Purser holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and a B.A. from Smith College, with postdoctoral fellowships at UC Davis and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received multiple awards for scholarship and teaching, including the 2020 Excellence in Graduate Education Award and the John Russo and Sherry Linkon Award for Best Published Article.
Her work examines labor market dynamics, reentry housing for formerly incarcerated individuals, and tenant organizing. She co-leads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded study on tenant organizing in Syracuse. Purser teaches courses on sociological theory, urban poverty, and ethnography, and has supervised numerous student projects. She actively collaborates with community organizations like the Workers’ Center of Central New York and the Syracuse Tenants Union, advocating for social and economic justice. Her recent publications address housing inequality, neoliberal poverty management, and the intersections of labor and punishment.
Awards highlight her contributions to both academia and public sociology, including editorial roles at Critical Sociology and Research in the Sociology of Work. Her advocacy extends to policy, such as championing Good Cause Eviction laws to protect tenants from retaliatory evictions and excessive rent hikes. Grants and collaborations underscore her commitment to bridging research and community action, particularly in marginalized urban communities.
