Christina Cross
Research interests: Families and children, race/ethnicity, social inequality, social demography, education.
Christina J. Cross is an Associate Professor of Sociology and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Population and Development Studies and the Department of African and African American Studies. Her research examines the family’s role in shaping people’s life chances and how its impact differs by their structural position in society. In particular, she explores how family structure, family change, and family dynamics influence individuals’ educational and economic outcomes—with special attention to if, how, and why these relationships differ by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Cross’ work has appeared in leading sociology, demography, racial and ethnic studies, and family studies journals. Her award-winning book, Inherited Inequality (Harvard University Press, 2025), uncovers and unpacks the hidden inequalities that exist between Black and white youth raised in two-parent families. The first comprehensive empirical study of its kind, Inherited Inequality decisively upends assumptions about family structure and racial inequality that have shaped America’s public policy agenda for decades.
Cross’ research has been featured in prominent national and international outlets such as the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Der Spiegel, NPR, Vox and Harper’s Bazaar. It is widely taught in classrooms across the globe and has been supported by organizations including the Russell Sage Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the JPB Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.
Her scholarship has received awards from the American Sociological Association, the Population Association of America, the National Council on Family Relations, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, ProQuest, and the Eastern, Midwest and Southern Sociological Societies. She is the recipient of Harvard University’s Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship and was named a finalist for the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award. Cross holds a PhD in Public Policy and Sociology from the University of Michigan.