I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. I conduct research in the areas of culture & cognition and inequality & stratification. I use a cognitive approach to culture in order to understand how people form beliefs and perceptions about important institutions in society — like the occupation structure; the stratification system; schools and universities; and social movements and the media. I then try to understand how these beliefs and perceptions in turn shape inequality. My research employs a wide variety of methodological approaches, including survey-experiments, interviews, and analysis of secondary survey and administrative data.
My research has been published in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Poetics, and Social Problems, among other outlets. Findings from these studies have been covered in U.S. News & World Report, Inside Higher Ed, and The Hechinger Report. My work has been generously supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, Ohio State’s Department of Sociology Seed Grant fund, OSU’s Institute for Population Research, Duke’s Interdisciplinary Institute for Education and Human Development, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Bass Connections, and the Worldviews Lab.
My most up-to-date CV can be found here.
Lauren Valentino 