Nicole Kreisberg is a Sociology PhD student, studying first-generation immigrant legal status and civic stratification in the U.S. Her master's thesis, entitled "Civic Stratification in the United States: Legal Status and First Generation Immigrant Economic Incorporation," uses survey data to test how legal status shapes the employment and occupational prestige of over 4,000 immigrants to the United States over time.

Kreisberg has also been working on several collaborative research projects. One is a co-authored paper with her PSTC mentor, Margot Jackson. They use survey data to evaluate the role of legal status on immigrant educational inter- and intra-generational mobility in the United States. Another, with PSTC Faculty Associate Michael White, studies historical immigrant assimilation to the U.S. using micro-data from the Census.