Welcome! My name is Marissa Thompson and I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. My research addresses questions at the intersection of social stratification, education, and race/ethnicity.

My current work explores, for example, why Americans are concerned about some (but not all) forms of inequality; how boundaries between social groups are negotiated and maintained; and segregation and inequality across a range of educational and occupational contexts. I employ a variety of methods in my work, including quantitative methods, survey and audit experiments, and both computational and qualitative analyses of text data. My research has been published in journals such as Social Forces, Sociological Science, Sociology of Education, the American Educational Research Journal, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others.

In addition to research on inequality and social policy, I’m excited about podcasts, knitting, and hiking with my partner Sam and our dog Pickle.