Lauren Harvey (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology department at Rice University. 

My dissertation research examines the concept of “working-class” in the U.S. What does it mean? Who does it include (or not)? And how do working-class people develop group identity and belonging? Using ethnographic methods I look at how boundaries between and within classes are conceived, how racialization and racism impact working-class identity, and the features that define working-class culture. 

My master’s thesis employed school effects models to estimate the effect of higher education institutions on first-generation, working-class students’ academic outcomes. Then, I assessed the relationship between school effects and students’ later academic and social-psychological outcomes. I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades scholar; I’ve worked on research projects of varying topics and methodologies including analyzing housing voucher program data, geospatial analysis and mapping of school districts, education program evaluation, content analyses of political violence, archival research on indigenous language revitalization, and others. 

I was born and raised in Reno, Nevada (BLC!). I am the first in my family to graduate college and an alumnus of the McNair Scholars Program. I earned my B.A. at the University of Nevada, Reno with concentrations in Gender, Race, and Identity, International Affairs, and Spanish Literature and Culture. My intellectual upbringing instilled a womanist politic in my scholarship and personal life, and I infuse these teachings throughout my research and embodiment as a young academic. I believe that education, when approached from an ethic of care, can be what bell hooks refers to as “the practice of freedom.”