With education funding cut looming, ‘irreplaceable data on schools’ at risk
The real economic and social value of the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences research won’t show up in DOGE’s metrics.
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Inequality lies at the heart of current debates about opportunity and equity, implicating numerous contemporary policy issues. Public and scholarly interest in inequality has intensified, not merely because of historic increases in income and wealth disparity in the United States and other advanced industrial countries, but also because inequalities of race, ethnicity, gender, and social class are evolving in dramatic and complicated ways. Cornell University is a leading center of scholarship on inequality, drawing strength from its many departments and college
Director's Statement
Cornell University’s Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) is devoted to understanding patterns, causes, and consequences of social and economic inequality. CSI fosters new and cutting-edge research, trains undergraduate and graduate students, encourages the exchange of ideas among inequality researchers, and disseminates research findings to a broader public. It supports research and knowledge that is evidence-based and systematic, whether it is “basic” research that develops formal models of the social processes that underpin inequality or “applied” research that assesses the intended or unintended consequences of policies that affect equality of opportunity.
CSI is based in the Sociology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences, but has more than 100 Faculty Affiliates from around campus. Faculty affiliates study a diverse range of topics, including:
- labor market processes and earnings inequality
- educational attainment and school-to-work transitions
- poverty and homelessness
- intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity
- residential segregation, neighborhoods, and urban poverty
- racial and ethnic inequality, immigration
- changing family forms and its impact on child development
What is CSI?
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Pursue the Minor that makes a Major difference
Click here to learn more about the minor in Inequality Studies, including our new Health Equity Track.
CSI News
The key to some nations’ public support for mental health care 
Isabel Perera explains why some countries have failed to provide adequate services for the mentally ill while others expanded care.
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Cornell expert: Anti-trans executive order belies unfounded moral panic
Wednesday's executive order prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in female sports discriminates not only against transgender people, but also against women, says philosophy professor Kate Manne.
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Klarman Fellow to study consequences of the social safety net
Neil Cholli, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in economics, has received a grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth to study how inequality affects economic growth and well-being in the U.S.
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Nexus Scholars study climate change inequality and infant language learning
The program provides undergraduates with summer opportunities to conduct research with and be mentored by faculty from across the college.
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How girls fare when only a son will do
“Gender plays out in many different ways across the world...even when both spouses agree on wanting more sons than daughters, this isn’t consistently correlated with girls getting less education," said sociologist Vida Maralani.
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Growing rural-urban divide exists only among white Americans
Researchers have found that when it comes to politics, Black and Latino residents of rural America differ far less, if at all, from their urban counterparts than do non-Hispanic white residents.
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Peter Loewen named dean of Arts and Sciences
Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.
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