Lauren Valentino

• Ph.D., Sociology, Duke University, expected 2019
  • Vorsanger-Smith Award
  • Kenan Institute for Ethics Fellow
  • Education and Human Development Scholar
• M.A., Sociology, Duke University, 2016
  • Certification areas: Culture, Inequality
• M.A., Sociology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2013
• B.A., Sociology (with honors), French Studies, Wesleyan University, 2010

Dissertation Title: “What is a ‘Good’ Job? Cultural Logics of Occupational Prestige”

(Committee: Steve Vaisey (chair), Chris Bail, Kieran Healy, Jessi Streib)

Lauren Valentino is a cultural and cognitive sociologist studying inequality and stratification. Her research uses a mix of methods (experiments, surveys, interviews) to understand how people form beliefs about poverty and the occupational hierarchy in the United States. Her recent work has been published in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Poetics, among other outlets. She is the winner of the Vorsanger-Smith Scholar Award and the Graduate Teaching Award.