Elena G. van Stee

Research Interests: Culture, inequality, families, parenting, young adulthood, education, economic sociology, morality, religion, qualitative methods

Elena G. van Stee is a Fellow in Sociology at Harvard University and a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s also the managing editor for Contexts, the ASA’s public-facing journal. 

Elena’s research examines culture and inequality, focusing on parent-child relationships in young adulthood. Her dissertation draws on paired interviews with young US college graduates (in their late 20s and early 30s) and their parents to examine how families navigate financial relationships amid high economic barriers to independence and persistent cultural expectations of self-sufficiency as a marker of adulthood. This project received the Eastern Sociological Society’s 2024 Coser Dissertation Proposal Award and has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation.

This research builds upon insights from two previous studies that examined parents’ roles during the COVID-19 university closures. The first, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, reveals how social class divides in college students’ expectations for parents’ roles informed divergent coping strategies. The second, in Socius, shows how social norms concerning age and relationship status persisted despite large-scale social upheaval.

In other work, Elena has published on racial essentialism (Annual Review of Sociology), racial disparities in higher education (Socius), and religion's intersections with wealth inequality and public health (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion).

Previous Degrees:
M.A. in Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
B.A. in Sociology and Religion, Calvin College