#  Jessica S. Welburn Paige 

 

 



   ![welburn](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/sociology/files/welburn_jessica.jpg?itok=QO2TkuM-) 

 



 

 email <jpaige@rand.org> 

 laptop\_windows [Jessica Welburn Paige's Website ](https://www.rand.org/about/people/p/paige_jessica_welburn.html) 

 

 



 

 (Sociology, November 2011)  
*Thesis Title:* Managing Instability: Conceptions of Opportunity and Success among African Americans from Middle-Income Households  
*Committee*: Michèle Lamont (Chair), William Julius Wilson, Kathryn Edin, Orlando Patterson, and Camille Charles (University of Pennsylvania)  
*Initial Placement:* President's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (2012-2014)  
*Current Position:* [Social Scientist, the RAND Corporation](https://www.rand.org/about/people/p/paige_jessica_welburn.html)

 Jessica Welburn Paige is a social scientist at the RAND Corporation. Her research interests include race and ethnicity, social mobility, culture and qualitative methods. Her research has explored how African Americans navigate racism and discrimination and how they think about social mobility in the Post-Civil Rights Era. She is completing a book manuscript titled *Die Hard City: Public Sector Contraction and the Experiences of African Americans in Detroit* (under contract with Columbia University Press). Since starting at RAND in 2021, Paige’s work has focused on a number of issues related to dimensions of inequality, including reparations policies for African Americans, attitudes and experiences of active duty service members and veterans, and the relationship between employment and having a criminal record. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

 **Research Focus**

- [African-American Populations](https://www.rand.org/topics/african-american-populations.html);
- [Labor Markets](https://www.rand.org/topics/labor-markets.html);
- [Socioeconomic Status](https://www.rand.org/topics/socioeconomic-status.html);
- [Workforce Diversity](https://www.rand.org/topics/workforce-diversity.html)

 **Previous Positions**  
Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, University of Iowa; President's Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan



 

 

 





 

 

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