Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 2022. He was formerly the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
Education
Desmond studied as an undergraduate at
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
, serving at the same time as a volunteer with
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...
in Tempe. In 2002, he graduated from ASU with a B.S. degree, ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' in communications and justice studies. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
Desmond was awarded a Harvey Fellowship in 2006 and a
MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...
in 2015. He won the 2017
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published du ...
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City''. His 2017 Pulitzer Prize citation read, "For a deeply researched exposé that showed how mass
evictions
Eviction is the removal of a Tenement (law), tenant from leasehold estate, rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosure, foreclosed by a mortgagee (often ...
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*Emirbayer, Mustafa and Matthew Desmond (2009). ''Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America''. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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*Desmond, Matthew (2016). '' Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City''. New York: Crown/Archetype, 2016.
*Desmond, Matthew (2018). "Why Work Doesn't Work Anymore." ''New York Times Magazine'', p. 36, September 16, 2018.
*Desmond, Matthew (2019). American Capitalism Is Brutal. You Can Trace That to the Plantation " ''New York Times Magazine'', 2019 (part of
The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is a long-form journalistic historiographical work that takes a critical view of traditionally revered figures and events in American history, including the Patriots in the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers, along with ...