PSTC | Postdoctoral Research Associate

Elly Field is a quantitative sociologist and demographer who studies racial and economic inequality. Her research agenda focuses on two major areas. First, she examines how the link between schools and neighborhoods shapes racial segregation dynamics. Her research uses original data collection and advanced quantitative methods, including a novel survey experiment and longitudinal data on the racial composition of schools and the neighborhoods they serve. In a second research area, Elly studies poverty in a paper published in Demography examining how material hardship shapes young women’s access to and use of contraceptives, and in a co-authored paper on the effects of industry shifts and de-unionization on Americans' risks of experiencing working poverty.

Before joining the PSTC at Brown University, Elly received her PhD in Sociology in 2024 from the University of Michigan, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and a Population Studies Center Trainee. She also holds a BA in Mathematics and Sociology from Hamilton College.

Selected Publication: 

Field, Elly. 2020. Material Hardship and Contraceptive Use During the Transition to Adulthood. Demography 57:2057–2084.

Scholarly Interests

Stratification and inequality; school and neighborhood racial segregation; segregation dynamics; poverty