I am assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. My research and teaching interests include poverty, inequality, social policy, children and youth, education, and family life. Much of my current research focuses on Child Protective Services, drawing on administrative data as well as fieldwork with mothers, child welfare agency staff, and professionals mandated to report child maltreatment. Other projects examine school choice and residential decision-making.
My work has been supported by the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy at Harvard, the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being, the Julius B. Richmond Fellowship at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
I received my Ph.D. in sociology and social policy from Harvard University and was previously at Georgia Tech’s School of History and Sociology. Before beginning my doctoral studies, I contributed to multi-method research on community college reforms and worked on impact litigation to reform child welfare systems. I have also advocated for youth in foster care and assisted self-represented litigants in housing and family law clinics.
Contact
Department of Sociology
University of California, Irvine
4215 Social Science Plaza B
Irvine, CA 92617
Kelley Fong 