Joe Soss

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs

University of Minnesota

301 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Office: Humphrey Center, Room 261

Email: jbsoss@umn.edu Phone: 612-626-9865

Joe Soss is the inaugural Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the University of Minnesota, where he holds faculty positions in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and, as an affiliate, the Departments of Political Science and Sociology. His research and teaching explore the interplay of politics, social inequalities, and public policy. He is particularly interested in how governance intersects with relations of domination, oppression, and predation in the United States. Soss's coauthored book, Disciplining the Poor (2011), was selected for the 2012 Michael Harrington Award (APSA, New Political Science) and the 2012 Oliver Cromwell Cox Award (ASA, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities), the 2012 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award (American Library Association), and the 2015 Herbert Simon Award (APSA, Section on Public Administration). In 2016, Professor Soss was honored with the University of Minnesota's campus-wide award for outstanding contributions to graduate education, named a Distinguished University Teaching Professor, and inducted into the UMN Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In 2025, Professor Soss and his co-author Joshua Page published Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice. Outside his academic work, Soss plays music and released an album in 2015, The Sound of Sweet Ruin.

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