Joanna Reed

Joanna Reed is a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has held this position since August 2009. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard/Stanford Collaborative Poverty Research Program (Jan. 2010—Jan. 2011) and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Department of Sociology during the 2008-9 academic year.

She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University (2008), an M.A. in Sociology from the same institution (2003), and a B.A. in Anthropology with High Honors and High Distinction in General Scholarship from UC Berkeley (1998), where she also minored in Spanish Language and Literature. Notably, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at UC Berkeley in 1998.

Her research interests focus on families, social inequality, and social policy, with a particular emphasis on unmarried couples with children, gender relations, neighborhoods, work dynamics, and qualitative methods. She explores topics such as relationship trajectories, pregnancy intentions, contraception practices, and the societal meanings of marriage versus cohabitation among disadvantaged groups.

In her professional service, she has mentored undergraduates through the UC Berkeley Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (2010–2014). She has also contributed as an ad hoc reviewer for journals such as the Journal of Marriage and Family, American Sociological Review, and Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Her work has been supported by grants including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research Graduate Fellowship.

Reed has been involved in research initiatives such as the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, the Gautreaux Two Housing Mobility Study, and the Healthy Marriage Initiative. Her research often intersects with urban sociology and social policy, addressing systemic barriers faced by low-income families.