Anthony Abraham Jack
Biographic Data
| ID | 111545 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anthony Abraham Jack |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anthony Abraham |
| FAMILY NAME | Jack |
| SIGNATURE | JACK A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard Graduate School of Education |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9829-7612 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 220 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Everyone’s burdens to bear: How race, gender and generational status shape faculty experiences with invisible labor
Research shows that women and scholars of color do more invisible labor in the academy than their peers. While previous research focuses on race and gender, we employ open-ended survey responses from 478 faculty members to examine how social class shapes their experiences. Class disadvantage amplifies differences, but does so unevenly. Among faculty of color, we see heightened reports of invisible labor as well as exposure to trauma through servi…
The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth
Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price
Pink Slips (for Some): Campus Employment, Social Class, and Covid-19
Although undergraduates from all class backgrounds work while attending college, little is known about how students approach finding work and the benefits they reap from different on-campus roles. Drawing on interviews with 110 undergraduates at Harvard University, we show that in the absence of clear institutional expectations surrounding on-campus work opportunities, students draw on class-based strategies to determine which jobs are 'right for…
The Graduate School Pipeline and First-Generation/Working-Class Inequalities
Sociological research has long been interested in inequalities generated by and within educational institutions. Although relatively rich as a literature, less analytic focus has centered on educational mobility and inequality experiences within graduate training specifically. In this article, we draw on a combination of survey and open-ended qualitative data from approximately 450 graduate students in the discipline of sociology to analyze gradu…
Belonging and Boundaries at an Elite University
Scholars posit that lower-income undergraduates experience 'cultural mismatch,' which undermines their sense of belonging, promotes withdrawal from campus, and limits mobility upon graduation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 103 undergraduates at an elite university, we examine how students' diverse trajectories to college affect how they identify as members of the community and modulate the relationship between social class and sense of belo…
Mobility and Inequality in the Professoriate: How and Why First-Generation and Working-Class Backgrounds Matter
Social science research has long recognized the relevance of socioeconomic background for mobility and inequality. In this article we interrogate how and why working-class and first-generation backgrounds are especially meaningful and take as our case in point the professoriate and the discipline of sociology, - i.e., a field that intellectually prioritizes attention to group inequality and that arguably offers a conservative empirical test compa…
Small but Mighty: Liberal Arts Colleges and the American Higher Education Project
The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
Getting in is only half the battle. The struggles of less privileged students continue long after they’ve arrived on campus. Anthony Jack reveals how—and why—admission to elite schools does not mean acceptance for disadvantaged students, and he explains what schools can do differently to help the privileged poor thrive.
Poison in the Ivy: Race Relations and the Reproduction of Inequality on Elite College Campuses
Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Children are agents in their own lives. Exactly how, when, and to what extent is a reality that Jessica McCrory Calarco meticulously details in her engaging book, Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School. For those interested in the cultural underpinnings of continued inequality in schools and in the lives of children and youth, Calarco outlines why we must move beyond simply believing that successful navigatio…
William Julius Wilson and the Study of the ‘New’ Diversity Elite Colleges
Higher education in the United States is depressingly stratified. Lower-income students are more likely to not go to college than their wealthy peers. If they do go, they are more likely to attend for-profit, community, and less-selective colleges, which have fewer resources to support students and lower graduation rates. New diversity means new responsibilities. Colleges are prepared to admit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, at leas…
(No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University
How do undergraduates engage authority figures in college? Existing explanations predict class-based engagement strategies. Using in-depth interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university, I show how undergraduates with disparate precollege experiences differ in their orientations toward and strategies for engaging authority figures in college. Middle-class undergraduates report being at ease in interacting with authority figures and are …
Culture Shock Revisited: The Social and Cultural Contingencies to Class Marginality
Existing explanations of class marginality predict similar social experiences for all lower‐income undergraduates. This article extends this literature by presenting data highlighting the cultural and social contingencies that account for differences in experiences of class marginality. The degree of cultural and social dissimilarity between one's life before and during college helps explain variation in experiences. I contrast the experiences of…
What We Face: Framing Problems in the Black Community
While many sociological studies analyze the causes, conditions, and mechanisms perpetuating American racial inequality, the literature on how African Americans understand and explain these inequalities is less developed. Drawing on 150 interviews with middle-class and working-class African American men and women, this paper analyzes inductively how respondents define and conceptualize the most pressing obstacles facing their group when probed on …
(No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University
How do undergraduates engage authority figures in college? Existing explanations predict class-based engagement strategies. Using in-depth interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university, I show how undergraduates with disparate precollege experiences differ in their orientations toward and strategies for engaging authority figures in college. Middle-class undergraduates report being at ease in interacting with authority figures and are …
Culture Shock Revisited: The Social and Cultural Contingencies to Class Marginality
Existing explanations of class marginality predict similar social experiences for all lower‐income undergraduates. This article extends this literature by presenting data highlighting the cultural and social contingencies that account for differences in experiences of class marginality. The degree of cultural and social dissimilarity between one's life before and during college helps explain variation in experiences. I contrast the experiences of…
Mobility and Inequality in the Professoriate: How and Why First-Generation and Working-Class Backgrounds Matter
Social science research has long recognized the relevance of socioeconomic background for mobility and inequality. In this article we interrogate how and why working-class and first-generation backgrounds are especially meaningful and take as our case in point the professoriate and the discipline of sociology, - i.e., a field that intellectually prioritizes attention to group inequality and that arguably offers a conservative empirical test compa…
What We Face: Framing Problems in the Black Community
While many sociological studies analyze the causes, conditions, and mechanisms perpetuating American racial inequality, the literature on how African Americans understand and explain these inequalities is less developed. Drawing on 150 interviews with middle-class and working-class African American men and women, this paper analyzes inductively how respondents define and conceptualize the most pressing obstacles facing their group when probed on …
The Graduate School Pipeline and First-Generation/Working-Class Inequalities
Sociological research has long been interested in inequalities generated by and within educational institutions. Although relatively rich as a literature, less analytic focus has centered on educational mobility and inequality experiences within graduate training specifically. In this article, we draw on a combination of survey and open-ended qualitative data from approximately 450 graduate students in the discipline of sociology to analyze gradu…
Belonging and Boundaries at an Elite University
Scholars posit that lower-income undergraduates experience 'cultural mismatch,' which undermines their sense of belonging, promotes withdrawal from campus, and limits mobility upon graduation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 103 undergraduates at an elite university, we examine how students' diverse trajectories to college affect how they identify as members of the community and modulate the relationship between social class and sense of belo…
Pink Slips (for Some): Campus Employment, Social Class, and Covid-19
Although undergraduates from all class backgrounds work while attending college, little is known about how students approach finding work and the benefits they reap from different on-campus roles. Drawing on interviews with 110 undergraduates at Harvard University, we show that in the absence of clear institutional expectations surrounding on-campus work opportunities, students draw on class-based strategies to determine which jobs are 'right for…
Poison in the Ivy: Race Relations and the Reproduction of Inequality on Elite College Campuses
What We Face: Framing Problems in the Black Community
While many sociological studies analyze the causes, conditions, and mechanisms perpetuating American racial inequality, the literature on how African Americans understand and explain these inequalities is less developed. Drawing on 150 interviews with middle-class and working-class African American men and women, this paper analyzes inductively how respondents define and conceptualize the most pressing obstacles facing their group when probed on …
Culture Shock Revisited: The Social and Cultural Contingencies to Class Marginality
Existing explanations of class marginality predict similar social experiences for all lower‐income undergraduates. This article extends this literature by presenting data highlighting the cultural and social contingencies that account for differences in experiences of class marginality. The degree of cultural and social dissimilarity between one's life before and during college helps explain variation in experiences. I contrast the experiences of…
(No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University
How do undergraduates engage authority figures in college? Existing explanations predict class-based engagement strategies. Using in-depth interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university, I show how undergraduates with disparate precollege experiences differ in their orientations toward and strategies for engaging authority figures in college. Middle-class undergraduates report being at ease in interacting with authority figures and are …
William Julius Wilson and the Study of the ‘New’ Diversity Elite Colleges
Higher education in the United States is depressingly stratified. Lower-income students are more likely to not go to college than their wealthy peers. If they do go, they are more likely to attend for-profit, community, and less-selective colleges, which have fewer resources to support students and lower graduation rates. New diversity means new responsibilities. Colleges are prepared to admit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, at leas…
The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
Getting in is only half the battle. The struggles of less privileged students continue long after they’ve arrived on campus. Anthony Jack reveals how—and why—admission to elite schools does not mean acceptance for disadvantaged students, and he explains what schools can do differently to help the privileged poor thrive.
Poison in the Ivy: Race Relations and the Reproduction of Inequality on Elite College Campuses
Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Children are agents in their own lives. Exactly how, when, and to what extent is a reality that Jessica McCrory Calarco meticulously details in her engaging book, Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School. For those interested in the cultural underpinnings of continued inequality in schools and in the lives of children and youth, Calarco outlines why we must move beyond simply believing that successful navigatio…
Small but Mighty: Liberal Arts Colleges and the American Higher Education Project
Mobility and Inequality in the Professoriate: How and Why First-Generation and Working-Class Backgrounds Matter
Social science research has long recognized the relevance of socioeconomic background for mobility and inequality. In this article we interrogate how and why working-class and first-generation backgrounds are especially meaningful and take as our case in point the professoriate and the discipline of sociology, - i.e., a field that intellectually prioritizes attention to group inequality and that arguably offers a conservative empirical test compa…
Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price
Pink Slips (for Some): Campus Employment, Social Class, and Covid-19
Although undergraduates from all class backgrounds work while attending college, little is known about how students approach finding work and the benefits they reap from different on-campus roles. Drawing on interviews with 110 undergraduates at Harvard University, we show that in the absence of clear institutional expectations surrounding on-campus work opportunities, students draw on class-based strategies to determine which jobs are 'right for…
The Graduate School Pipeline and First-Generation/Working-Class Inequalities
Sociological research has long been interested in inequalities generated by and within educational institutions. Although relatively rich as a literature, less analytic focus has centered on educational mobility and inequality experiences within graduate training specifically. In this article, we draw on a combination of survey and open-ended qualitative data from approximately 450 graduate students in the discipline of sociology to analyze gradu…
Belonging and Boundaries at an Elite University
Scholars posit that lower-income undergraduates experience 'cultural mismatch,' which undermines their sense of belonging, promotes withdrawal from campus, and limits mobility upon graduation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 103 undergraduates at an elite university, we examine how students' diverse trajectories to college affect how they identify as members of the community and modulate the relationship between social class and sense of belo…
The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth
Everyone’s burdens to bear: How race, gender and generational status shape faculty experiences with invisible labor
Research shows that women and scholars of color do more invisible labor in the academy than their peers. While previous research focuses on race and gender, we employ open-ended survey responses from 478 faculty members to examine how social class shapes their experiences. Class disadvantage amplifies differences, but does so unevenly. Among faculty of color, we see heightened reports of invisible labor as well as exposure to trauma through servi…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (8 works) · Social science (7 works) · Class (philosophy (5 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (5 works) · Elite (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)