Elizabeth Armstrong
Sherry B. Ortner Collegiate Professor of Sociology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Elizabeth Armstrong is the Sherry B. Ortner Collegiate Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. Armstrong joined the U-M faculty in 2009, returning to her undergraduate alma mater. Armstrong received her PhD from the University of California-Berkeley Department of Sociology and taught at Indiana University-Bloomington from 2000-09. She spent 2007-08 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and 2018-19 at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University.
Armstrong’s research focuses on the reproduction of gender, class, and race inequalities. She examines these processes in the domain of sexuality and within the organizational context of the university. Armstrong’s book with co-author Laura Hamilton, “Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality,” examined how college women’s outcomes were in part a result of the structure of college academic and social life, which best accommodated the interests of affluent, socially oriented, and out-of-state students. More about Armstrong’s research on higher education and social inequality can be found here.
PhD, University of California-Berkeley; MA, UC-Berkeley; and BA, University of Michigan.
