Aliya Saperstein

Professor Saperstein received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California-Berkeley. She previously taught at the University of Oregon.

Her research focuses on the social processes through which people come to perceive, name and deploy “racial” differences -- in public discourse, academic research and their everyday lives -- and their consequences for explaining, and reinforcing, social inequality. Her current research projects explore two strands of this subject:

  • The relationship between individual-level racial fluidity and the maintenance of group boundaries, racial stereotypes and hierarchies.
  • The implications of methodological decisions, especially the measurement of race and ethnicity in surveys, for studies of stratification and health disparities.

This research has been published for sociological audiences in Social Forces and Social Problems, among other venues, and for general science audiences in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and PLoS One.

 

Curriculum Vitæ
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RESEARCH AREAS

Race and ethnicity; inequality and mobility; health disparities; social demography.

PUBLICATIONS

Recent Papers and Book Chapters:

 

  • Saperstein, Aliya. In press. “Capturing Complexity in the United States: Which Aspects of Race Matter and When?” Ethnic and Racial Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.607504

  • Freeman, Jonathan B., Andrew M. Penner, Aliya Saperstein, Matthias Scheutz and Nalini Ambady. 2011. “Looking the Part: Social Status Cues Shape Race Perception.” PLoS One 6(9): e25107.

  • Noymer, Andrew, Andrew M. Penner and Aliya Saperstein. 2011. “Cause of Death Affects Racial Classification on Death Certificates.” PLoS One 6(1): e15812.

  • Saperstein, Aliya and Andrew M. Penner. 2010. “The Race of a Criminal Record: How Incarceration Colors Racial Perceptions” Social Problems 57: 92-113.

  • Saperstein, Aliya. 2009. “Different Measures, Different Mechanisms: A New Perspective on Racial Disparities in Health Care.” Research in the Sociology of Health Care 27: 21-45.

  • Penner, Andrew M. and Aliya Saperstein. 2008. “How Social Status Shapes Race.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(50): 19628-30.

  • Saperstein, Aliya. 2008. “(Re)Modeling Race: Moving From Intrinsic Characteristic to Multidimensional Marker of Status” Pp. 335-50 in Racism in Post-Race America: New Theories, New Directions, ed. Charles Gallagher. Social Forces Publishing.

  • Saperstein, Aliya. 2006. “Double-Checking the Race Box: Examining Inconsistency Between Survey Measures of Observed and Self-Reported Race.” Social Forces 85(1): 57-74.

 

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