Hope Harvey is an associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration and (by courtesy) the Department of Sociology. She is also an affiliate of the Center for Poverty Research. 

Harvey studies poverty and inequality, with a focus on housing and family life. Her book, Doubled Up: Shared Households and the Precarious Lives of Families, was published by Princeton University Press in 2025. Doubled Up won the American Sociological Association Population Section's Otis Dudley Duncan Book Award and the North Central Sociological Association's Scholarly Achievement Award and was named a Choice Editors' Pick. Harvey has received funding and awards from the Institute for Research on Poverty, Council on Contemporary Families, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Social Security Administration, and other groups, and her research has appeared in journals including Demography, Social Forces, Social Problems, Journal of Marriage and Family, City & Community, and Journal of Public Administration Research. 

Harvey holds a Ph.D. in social policy and sociology from Harvard University, and she completed postdoctoral research in Cornell University's Department of Policy Analysis and Management. She was a first-generation college student and received her B.A. from Carleton College and her Master of Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to graduate school, she served as an Americorps case manager for people facing homelessness.