Sociologist Allison Hurst leads a series of studies looking at working-class inequalities in academia
Allison Hurst
By Colin Bowyer, Communications Manager - February 4, 2026
In 2022, the American Sociological Association (ASA) surveyed the experiences, challenges, and opportunities of sociologists from first-generation and working-class (FGWC) backgrounds. Drawing on responses from nearly 2,000 ASA members, the report revealed persistent disparities in educational mobility, professional advancement, and resource access.
Allison Hurst, a professor of sociology at the School of Public Policy was a member of the Task Force conducting the survey and has collaborated with other task force members to publish the findings. Hurst and her colleagues discovered clear gaps in representations, as well as identified ways in which cultural, social, and economic access influence perspectives in sociology. Some of their key findings from the initial task force included:
- FGWC scholars are underrepresented in top-ranked graduate programs and faculty positions at elite institutions.
- FGWC faculty report lower salaries, higher student debt, and greater obligations to support extended family compared to peers.
- Both FGWC graduate students and faculty experience significantly higher levels of isolation in departments, on campuses, and at professional conferences.
- Race and socioeconomic background intersect to compound inequalities, with BIPOC scholars disproportionately represented among FGWC respondents.
“Underlying systems of inequality shape the professional trajectories of FGWC sociologists,” said Hurst. “Our hope is that these initial findings will inform policies and practices that foster a more inclusive and equitable discipline.”
The following year, Hurst and her colleagues delved further into the survey responses and published an article in the journal Sociology of Education that further analyzed the initial report’s survey and qualitative data. The findings revealed systematic disadvantages for FGWC in access to high‑status graduate programs and unequal experiences during graduate training, including higher debt, fewer institutional resources, weaker mentoring, and stronger feelings of isolation.
“Graduate education is increasingly the gateway to professional and academic careers,” said Hurst. “Yet our research shows that graduate training often reproduces, rather than reduces, social class inequality.”
Described as “pipeline inequalities,” FGWC scholars are significantly less likely to have attended private undergraduate institutions, a factor strongly associated with admission to top‑ranked graduate programs. As a result, these students are also much less likely to be enrolled in elite graduate programs, even after controlling for race, gender, and other background factors. Once in graduate school, FGWC students face heightened financial precarity, including receiving fewer fellowships and a higher likelihood to take out student loans and accumulate more debt.
“Many students simply don’t receive the same guidance about which programs to apply to, what funding is available, or how graduate admissions work,” explained Hurst. “Those knowledge gaps have lasting consequences.”
In 2025, Hurst and her colleagues from The Ohio State University and Whitworth University published a second article related to the task force survey in Sociological Perspectives. Focusing only on the open-ended responses from ASA members, Hurst documents how first‑generation and working‑class scholars experience the academic profession differently than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds.
More than 90 percent of respondents reported that socioeconomic background matters for success in academia. Yet, important differences are apparent from the data in how class disadvantage is understood and experienced, particularly between scholars who have lived these inequalities and those who observe them from a distance. Hurst and her colleagues found enduring structural disadvantages, psychological and social costs, financial challenges, and intersectional inequalities.
“Our findings challenge assumptions that upward mobility eliminates class‑based inequality,” explained Hurst. “Academic careers are continuing to be structured in ways to reward prior access to wealth, networks, and institutional familiarity.”
Current diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher education often overlook social class or treat it as secondary to race and gender. In doing so, the authors contend it leaves significant structural barriers unaddressed.
“Talking about class only indirectly, or assuming it disappears with educational success, limits our ability to build truly equitable academic institutions,” said Hurst.
Since 2022, Hurst has been working with a team of qualitative researchers, including OSU graduate students to interview dozens of FGWC sociologists who originally took the survey. Findings from this data will be published in the coming years.