Laura Tach

Graduate Student in Sociology and Social Policy

Biographical Note

Laura received her B.A. with Honors in Sociology from the Pennsylvania State University, with minors in Statistics and African American Studies. She is currently a fourth year doctoral candidate in Sociology and Social Policy and a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. Her research interests focus on how public policy can be used to influence the intergenerational transmission of poverty, the redevelopment of high poverty neighborhoods into mixed income communities, and the well-being of children and families living in poverty. Laura’s dissertation examines the spatial distribution of economic inequality in America and the social, political, and economic negotiations that create such inequality. She is also involved in a research project examining the social consequences of HOPE-VI mixed income redevelopment, a qualitative study of the Earned Income Tax Credit (with Dr. Edin and fellow graduate students), and a paper examining the consequences of welfare and employment for unmarried parents.

10/16/2007

Research Interests

Social Stratification & Poverty
Urban Studies, Neighborhoods, & Housing
Families, Children & Social Policy
Quantitative & Mixed Methods

Previous Degrees

B.A. Sociology, Pennsylvania State University

Miscellaneous Additional Information

Conferences at Which I've Made Presentations

Aage Sorensen Memorial Conference (2006)
American Sociological Association (2003-2006)
Population Association of America (2004,2007)

Grants Received

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2004-2007)
HUD Early Doctoral Student Research Grant (2005-2006)
Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy Doctoral Fellow (2007-2008)

Contact

617-496-5794 (FAX)

421 Taubman Kennedy School of Government 79 John F. Kennedy St

*Laura will be a visiting researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, France in Nov-Dec 2007.*