J Roksa
Biographic Data
| ID | 14697 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Roksa |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Roksa |
| SIGNATURE | ROKSA J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Virginia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2757-5982 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 313 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Gender Inequality in Publication Prestige Among Graduate Students in Biological Sciences
Gender parity in academia remains elusive, even in fields, such as biological sciences, that award approximately half of their PhDs to women. Based on a sample of graduate students in biological sciences followed over 5 years during their PhD programs, we find that women publish in journals with lower impact factors and are less likely to publish in top journals. Notably, gender inequality in journal impact factors holds only for total publicatio…
Support without Status
One of the most important developmental relationships in the doctoral student experience is that of the faculty advisor, and yet we know little about whether and how advisor relationships vary between first-generation and continuing-generation doctoral students. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 83 late-stage doctoral students in biological sciences, we explore differences in student perceptions of their relationships with advisors. Narrativ…
Breaking points
Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions
Inequality in Higher Education
More recently, a growing body of research has explored racial/ethnic and gender inequities in higher education. The two dominant sociological traditions reviewed—status attainment and social reproduction—have originated from concerns regarding socioeconomic inequality. Combining insights across the different dimensions of inequality would amplify their contributions to understanding college student success. Whereas the status attainment tradition…
Inequalities in Becoming a Scholar
Background: Extensive research has documented the importance of faculty advisors for graduate students’ experiences and outcomes. Recent research has begun to provide more nuanced accounts illuminating different dimensions of advisor support as well as attending to inequalities in students’ experiences with advisors. Purpose: We extend the research on graduate student advisor relationships in two important ways. First, building on the concept of …
Understanding the benefits of parent-child discussion
While ample literature shows that parenting practices are related to educational inequality, less is known about how this occurs. In this study, we examine several potential mechanisms that facilitate the conversion of parenting practices into educational success by focusing on the role of students and teachers. More specifically, we examine how student confidence and teacher praise mediate the relationship between parent-child discussion and stu…
Parental Validation, College Experiences, and Institutional Commitment of First-Generation and Low-Income Students
This study examines how a specific form of parental support—parental validation—is related to students’ college experiences and institutional commitment. Results based on a survey of first-generation and low-income students indicated that parental validation is related to students’ social and academic engagement, sense of belonging, and institutional commitment. Students’ sense of belonging also contributes to explaining the relationship between …
Unequal expectations
Who is publishing journal articles during graduate school? Racial and gender inequalities in biological sciences over time
Despite increased enrolment of women and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in doctoral programs, notable inequalities in academic careers persist. We investigate one potential source of these inequalities: publication rates during graduate school. Results, based on a sample of doctoral students in biological sciences across 53 institutions, indicate that both white women and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (A…
Navigating the First Year of College
Although college education is a key to upward mobility, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to enter and complete college than their more advantaged peers. Prior literature has illuminated how cultural capital contributes to these disparities. An alternative conceptualization of cultural capital, however, suggests that it can also play a role in social mobility. In this study, we build on and extend the liter…
Balancing Research and Service in Academia
Our study highlights specific ways in which race and gender create inequality in the workplace. Using in-depth interviews with 67 biology PhD students, we show how engagement with research and service varies by both gender and race. By considering the intersection between gender and race, we find not only that women biology graduate students do more service than men, but also that racial and ethnic minority men do more service than white men. Whi…
The Role of Family Support in Facilitating Academic Success of Low-Income Students
Intergenerational Exchange of Support in Low-Income Families
Objective: This study examines the resource dilution hypothesis during the transition to adulthood, when parental support is both more optional and more contested, and when children may not only receive but also provide support to their families.Background: Prior sociological literature on the investment of family resources and the role of siblings has typically focused on younger children in compulsory schooling. It is not clear whether the patt…
First-Generation Students in Pursuit of the PhD
Although first-generation students represent a substantial proportion of doctoral students, few studies have examined their experiences and outcomes. We contribute to this nascent area of inquiry by comparing experiences and outcomes of first-generation and continuing-generation students during the first 3 years of doctoral education. Contrary to expectations, the results based on a national sample of PhD students in biology revealed remarkable s…
Austerity Blues
Providing a ''Leg Up
Although higher education scholars are increasingly exploring disparities within institutions, they have yet to examine how parental involvement contributes to social-class variation in students' experiences. We ask, what role do parents play in producing divergent college experiences for students from different class backgrounds? Relying on interviews with 41 families, including mothers, fathers, and their daughters, we find that affluent parent…
Cultural capital and habitus in context
While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received less attention in quantitative studies. We attend to this gap in the literature by considering the relationship between cultural capital, habitus, and the transition into higher education across high schools with low and high college-going cultures in the …
Importance of Grades and Placement for Math Attainment
Research on high school math course taking documents the advantages of starting high school at or beyond Algebra 1. Fewer studies examine differentiation into remedial, general, and honors Algebra 1 course types by course rigor. This study examines how course grades and course rigor are associated with math attainment among students with similar eighth-grade standardized math test scores. Students who earned an A in remedial courses had lower att…
Engaging with Diversity
Although a growing body of research has demonstrated the value of interacting with diverse peers, a number of questions remain about the relationship between the quality of students’ diversity interactions and their cognitive development. In a longitudinal study following 3 cohorts of students from entry into college through the end of their 4th year, we examined how students’ positive and negative diversity interactions were related to 2 differe…
How schools structure opportunity
New dimensions of educational inequality
Cumulative Advantage in the Skill Development of STEM Graduate Students
Studies of skill development often describe a process of cumulative advantage, in which small differences in initial skill compound over time, leading to increasing skill gaps between those with an initial advantage and those without. We offer evidence of a similar phenomenon accounting for differential patterns of research skill development in graduate students over an academic year and explore differences in socialization that accompany divergi…
Inequality in skill development on college campuses
Neoliberalism and the Global Restructuring of Knowledge and Education
Parenting and Academic Achievement
A growing body of research has examined how cultural capital, recently broadened to include not only high-status cultural activities but also a range of different parenting practices, influences children's educational success. Most of this research assumes that parents' current class location is the starting point of class transmission. However, does the ability of parents to pass advantages to their children, particularly through specific cultur…
Providing a ''Leg Up
Although higher education scholars are increasingly exploring disparities within institutions, they have yet to examine how parental involvement contributes to social-class variation in students' experiences. We ask, what role do parents play in producing divergent college experiences for students from different class backgrounds? Relying on interviews with 41 families, including mothers, fathers, and their daughters, we find that affluent parent…
Accumulating advantages over time
The romance of college attendance
Double Disadvantage or Blessing in Disguise? Understanding the Relationship Between College Major and Employment Sector
Although college graduates earn substantial labor market rewards, not all college degrees are rewarded equally. Graduates who majored in female-dominated fields earn substantially lower incomes than do graduates who majored in male-dominated fields. Income differentials that are associated with different types of college majors are extensively noted but poorly understood. This article advances the previous literature by examining how college majo…
Should Mom go back to school? Post-natal educational attainment and parenting practices
When studying schooling is not enough
How Gender Counts When Couples Count Their Money
Balancing Research and Service in Academia
Our study highlights specific ways in which race and gender create inequality in the workplace. Using in-depth interviews with 67 biology PhD students, we show how engagement with research and service varies by both gender and race. By considering the intersection between gender and race, we find not only that women biology graduate students do more service than men, but also that racial and ethnic minority men do more service than white men. Whi…
Cultural capital and habitus in context
While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received less attention in quantitative studies. We attend to this gap in the literature by considering the relationship between cultural capital, habitus, and the transition into higher education across high schools with low and high college-going cultures in the …
New dimensions of educational inequality
Intergenerational Exchange of Support in Low-Income Families
Objective: This study examines the resource dilution hypothesis during the transition to adulthood, when parental support is both more optional and more contested, and when children may not only receive but also provide support to their families.Background: Prior sociological literature on the investment of family resources and the role of siblings has typically focused on younger children in compulsory schooling. It is not clear whether the patt…
Navigating the First Year of College
Although college education is a key to upward mobility, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to enter and complete college than their more advantaged peers. Prior literature has illuminated how cultural capital contributes to these disparities. An alternative conceptualization of cultural capital, however, suggests that it can also play a role in social mobility. In this study, we build on and extend the liter…
First-Generation Students in Pursuit of the PhD
Although first-generation students represent a substantial proportion of doctoral students, few studies have examined their experiences and outcomes. We contribute to this nascent area of inquiry by comparing experiences and outcomes of first-generation and continuing-generation students during the first 3 years of doctoral education. Contrary to expectations, the results based on a national sample of PhD students in biology revealed remarkable s…
Giving to local schools
On the Edge of Commitment
Cumulative Advantage in the Skill Development of STEM Graduate Students
Studies of skill development often describe a process of cumulative advantage, in which small differences in initial skill compound over time, leading to increasing skill gaps between those with an initial advantage and those without. We offer evidence of a similar phenomenon accounting for differential patterns of research skill development in graduate students over an academic year and explore differences in socialization that accompany divergi…
Structuring access to higher education
Who is publishing journal articles during graduate school? Racial and gender inequalities in biological sciences over time
Despite increased enrolment of women and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in doctoral programs, notable inequalities in academic careers persist. We investigate one potential source of these inequalities: publication rates during graduate school. Results, based on a sample of doctoral students in biological sciences across 53 institutions, indicate that both white women and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (A…
Importance of Grades and Placement for Math Attainment
Research on high school math course taking documents the advantages of starting high school at or beyond Algebra 1. Fewer studies examine differentiation into remedial, general, and honors Algebra 1 course types by course rigor. This study examines how course grades and course rigor are associated with math attainment among students with similar eighth-grade standardized math test scores. Students who earned an A in remedial courses had lower att…
Engaging with Diversity
Although a growing body of research has demonstrated the value of interacting with diverse peers, a number of questions remain about the relationship between the quality of students’ diversity interactions and their cognitive development. In a longitudinal study following 3 cohorts of students from entry into college through the end of their 4th year, we examined how students’ positive and negative diversity interactions were related to 2 differe…
The Best of the Best
How schools structure opportunity
Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions
Inequality in skill development on college campuses
How Gender Counts When Couples Count Their Money
Double Disadvantage or Blessing in Disguise? Understanding the Relationship Between College Major and Employment Sector
Although college graduates earn substantial labor market rewards, not all college degrees are rewarded equally. Graduates who majored in female-dominated fields earn substantially lower incomes than do graduates who majored in male-dominated fields. Income differentials that are associated with different types of college majors are extensively noted but poorly understood. This article advances the previous literature by examining how college majo…
On the Edge of Commitment
CHAPTER Seven United States
The romance of college attendance
Structuring access to higher education
Giving to local schools
When studying schooling is not enough
Academically Adrift
What Can You Do with That Degree? College Major and Occupational Status of College Graduates over Time
While income inequality among college graduates is well documented, inequality in occupational status remains largely unexplored. We examine whether and how oc-cupational specificity of college majors is related to college graduates ’ transition into the labor market and their subsequent occupational trajectories. Analyses of NLSY79 indicate that occupationally specific degrees are beneficial at the point of entry into the labor market but have t…
The Best of the Best
Limited Learning on College Campuses
Parenting and Academic Achievement
A growing body of research has examined how cultural capital, recently broadened to include not only high-status cultural activities but also a range of different parenting practices, influences children's educational success. Most of this research assumes that parents' current class location is the starting point of class transmission. However, does the ability of parents to pass advantages to their children, particularly through specific cultur…
A Late Start
While a substantial proportion of students delay entry into higher education, sociologists are only beginning to understand the consequences of this phenomenon for educational attainment. Previous studies have reported a negative relationship between delayed entry and degree completion, but they have not been able to explain it with a range of students' background characteristics. Results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 ind…
Should Mom go back to school? Post-natal educational attainment and parenting practices
Neoliberalism and the Global Restructuring of Knowledge and Education
Accumulating advantages over time
Inequality in skill development on college campuses
How schools structure opportunity
New dimensions of educational inequality
Cumulative Advantage in the Skill Development of STEM Graduate Students
Studies of skill development often describe a process of cumulative advantage, in which small differences in initial skill compound over time, leading to increasing skill gaps between those with an initial advantage and those without. We offer evidence of a similar phenomenon accounting for differential patterns of research skill development in graduate students over an academic year and explore differences in socialization that accompany divergi…
Cultural capital and habitus in context
While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received less attention in quantitative studies. We attend to this gap in the literature by considering the relationship between cultural capital, habitus, and the transition into higher education across high schools with low and high college-going cultures in the …
Importance of Grades and Placement for Math Attainment
Research on high school math course taking documents the advantages of starting high school at or beyond Algebra 1. Fewer studies examine differentiation into remedial, general, and honors Algebra 1 course types by course rigor. This study examines how course grades and course rigor are associated with math attainment among students with similar eighth-grade standardized math test scores. Students who earned an A in remedial courses had lower att…
Engaging with Diversity
Although a growing body of research has demonstrated the value of interacting with diverse peers, a number of questions remain about the relationship between the quality of students’ diversity interactions and their cognitive development. In a longitudinal study following 3 cohorts of students from entry into college through the end of their 4th year, we examined how students’ positive and negative diversity interactions were related to 2 differe…
First-Generation Students in Pursuit of the PhD
Although first-generation students represent a substantial proportion of doctoral students, few studies have examined their experiences and outcomes. We contribute to this nascent area of inquiry by comparing experiences and outcomes of first-generation and continuing-generation students during the first 3 years of doctoral education. Contrary to expectations, the results based on a national sample of PhD students in biology revealed remarkable s…
Psychology (30 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Political science (23 works) · Economics (14 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (14 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Social science (12 works) · Higher education (11 works) · Inequality (11 works) · Mathematics education (11 works)