Matthew Christopher Soener

Matthew Christopher Soener serves as Assistant Professor in Sociology and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research critically examines the intersections of race, political economy, and environmental change.

Key research areas include:

• Political Economy of Financialization and Climate Change
• Racial Discrimination in Urban Public Spaces
• Global Inequality and IMF Policies
• Intersectionality in Workplace Inequality

His work combines theoretical rigor with empirical analysis of contemporary social issues.

Recent publications show a clear trajectory toward investigating how economic structures (e.g., shareholder power, IMF austerity) perpetuate social and environmental injustices. His studies on antiblack discrimination in nightclubs and greenhouse gas emissions in the Global South exemplify this critical approach to understanding systemic inequalities.