Dr. Ruby Mendenhall

Biography

Ruby Mendenhall holds joint faculty appointments in Sociology, African American Studies, Urban Regional Planning, and Social Work. She is also an affiliate of the Institute of Genomic Biology and the Institute for Computing in Humanities. She is currently a Fellow at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on social inequality across the life course and the role of public policy in facilitating individuals' agency for social and economic mobility. Mendenhall employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze administrative welfare and employment data, census data, in-depth interviews, and focus group data. Her publications have appeared in esteemed academic journals such as Social Forces, Social Science Research, Demography, Housing Policy Debate, Review of Black Political Economy, and Black Scholar. Mendenhall is currently involved in a multi-site study titled 'Investing in Enduring Resources,' which examines how low- to moderate-income families utilize the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to enhance social and economic mobility in Champaign and Boston. She also explores the experiences of middle-class and upper-middle-class professionals and executives dealing with job loss and their efforts to avoid downward mobility, alongside her ongoing research on the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program.

Research Interests