Dr. Christina Ciocca Eller

Biography

Christina Ciocca Eller is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in 2019 from Columbia University, focusing on Women’s Studies and Management Research. Prior to her doctoral studies, she served as the Chief Speechwriter and Communications Director for the president of Georgetown University. Her research primarily examines the role of organizations in shaping opportunities and outcomes available to individuals, with a particular emphasis on the U.S. higher education sector. Her dissertation, titled 'Organization Effects on Bachelor’s Degree Completion for the New Majority,' integrates key concepts from stratification and organizational literatures to study the interactions between students and colleges. Using longitudinal data and yearlong interviews with students at a large, urban public university system in the U.S., she quantifies the 'college effects'—the independent impacts of colleges on student outcomes—and analyzes the black/white gap in BA completion as well as the relationship between course-taking and labor market outcomes. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review.

Research Interests