Professor Benson's research broadly investigates how contexts of development in early life shape intergenerational mobility, identity, and health in young adulthood. Her current work examines inequality in higher education, focusing on first-generation college students and career development.
Professor Benson's recent book, Geographies of Campus Inequality: Mapping the Diverse Experiences of First-Generation Students (2020), co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth M. Lee, problematizes the notion that there is one way to be a first-generation college student. Drawing on in-depth interviews and survey data with first-generation students at selective campuses, the book describes the complex ways that first-generation students sort themselves and are sorted into very different college worlds, shaping their experiences as first-generation students with both immediate and long-term implications for climbing the socioeconomic ladder. This work was funded by the Spencer Foundation and was featured in this ASA Sociology of Education podcast episode. She is currently working on a second project examining the post-college trajectories of first-generation selective college students.
Professor Benson also recently published an article (2021) with Hannah Gunther ‘19 that shows how strategies to attract first-generation, lower-income students to selective universities fall short if they are not backed by a strong institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Information about her other publications can be found on her Google Scholar page.
Areas of interest: Life course, inequality in higher education, transition to adulthood, first-generation college students, post-college transition, & qualitative and quantitative methods
