Liza G. Steele

Bio

I am a Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York (CUNY), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a member of the doctoral faculty at The CUNY Graduate Center, and a faculty affiliate at the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR). I do research at the nexus of Sociology and Political Science. My research has been published in journals such as the Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, presented in six countries, and funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. 

I research attitudes toward immigrants/refugees, ethnic diversity, income inequality, social mobility, and social welfare policies ("social policy preferences" or "preferences for redistribution") in cross-national perspective, and am a co-founder of the Social Policy Preferences Network. I am currently focused on two projects: (1) a three-wave conjoint survey experiment about Americans’ preferred immigrant and refugee characteristics before (2019), during (2021), and after (2024) the COVID-19 pandemic and, (2) a mixed-methods study of New Yorkers’ attitudes toward the migrant influx that began in 2022 (with Phil Kasinitz), funded by RSF. Other ongoing work pertains to the measurement of ethnic diversity and the relationship between policy preferences, wealth, and social mobility. My previous research includes in-depth studies of Brazil and China. I use both traditional and computational quantitative and qualitative methods in my research, and have a working knowledge of French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

I teach Statistics and Global Social Stratification at the undergraduate, master’s, and PhD levels, and regularly publish with my students. I received my PhD in Sociology from Princeton University, and hold Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from Columbia University. 

Email: lsteele at jjay dot cuny dot edu