Research
Broadly, my research examines the processes that both generate and reduce inequality. For instance, I investigate the collective consequences of seemingly individual decisions; how boundaries between social groups are maintained and negotiated; and the entrenched nature of educational and labor market stratification. My work not only seeks to understand persistent social problems but also to identify policies and practices to reduce inequality. My research has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, PNAS, Social Forces, Sociological Science, and Sociology of Education. In addition, my work has been supported by generous funding from the Russell Sage Foundation (RSF), the Gates Foundation, the National Academy of Education (NAEd), the Spencer Foundation, and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
The first strand of my research examines the role that individual decision-making plays in broader patterns of social stratification. We are each tasked with making a number of choices while navigating civic institutions – such as what school to send a child to, what college major to declare, or which neighborhood to move to – and these seemingly independent decisions have community-level consequences. My ongoing and recently published work in this vein examines how parents of school-aged children choose a school for their child. Here, I leverage a series of novel survey experiments to explore how status competition and boundary maintenance shape parental engagement with ranked educational data, such as the information one might find on GreatSchools.org. I also focus on undergraduate course and major selection as a second site for understanding the granular process of consideration and choice. Further, I study perceptions and misperceptions of inequality, including experimental work on the extent to which Americans have accurate beliefs about local segregation levels and how people distinguish between fair and unfair forms of inequality.
In the second and most recent strand of my research, I explore the emergence of racial/ethnic categories and how people draw boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Here, I turn to examining the contents of the categories that many take for granted when measuring inequality. For example, recently published work examines how genetic ancestry tests (such as those available commercially through 23andMe and Ancestry.com) affect the boundary-making processes of both Black and White Americans as they grapple with their perceptions of who is – and isn’t – Black. Additionally, drawing from the case of the revision of official racial/ethnic categories on the upcoming 2030 U.S. census, another study investigates how everyday Americans appeal for categorical recognition and frame their perceptions of contemporary and historical racial boundaries. Together, this work advances theoretical understandings of the classification logics that shape the racial structure of the U.S. and also informs key social and ethical controversies, including debates over who ought to be eligible to benefit from policies such as affirmative action and reparations.
Finally, I also document and analyze changing patterns of inequality across educational and labor market contexts. For example, previous work on this topic examines the sources of the Black gender gap in educational attainment and the role of schools in mitigating academic disparities by race and socioeconomic status. Importantly, policies to redress inequality are only effective insofar as they are utilized by the intended recipients; a harsh reality facing social programs designed to support the most vulnerable Americans is that many eligible beneficiaries do not ultimately receive aid. In a series of in-progress articles, my co-authors and I examine the mechanisms shaping the take-up of safety net benefits in my home state of Michigan. Collectively, this strand of research highlights previously misunderstood mechanisms and the limits of policy solutions to reduce inequality.
Publications
Working Papers
Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Financial Aid Program.
EdWorkingPapers
Elizabeth Burland, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Kelcie Ferrara-Gerson, Xavier Fields, Katherine Michelmore, Nathan Sotherland, Kevin Stange, Marissa E. Thompson, and Megan Tomkins-Stange.
DNA Reveals the Growing Ancestral Diversity of the United States.
APC Working Paper
Sam Trejo and Marissa E. Thompson.
2026
Policing the boundaries of Blackness: How Black and White Americans evaluate racial self-identifications.
American Journal of Sociology ● ●
Marissa E. Thompson, Sam Trejo, AJ Alvero, and Daphne O. Martschenko
2025
“Paper, practice, ancestry, culture”: Racial frames and contested racial/ethnic census categories.
Social Forces ●
Marissa E. Thompson
2024
Gender Segregation and Decision-Making in Undergraduate Course-Taking.
Sociological Science ● ●
Marissa E. Thompson, Tobias Dalberg, and Elizabeth E. Bruch
The Effect of Academic Outcomes, Equity, and Student Demographics on Parental Preferences for Schools: Evidence from a Survey Experiment.
Social Forces ● ● ●
Marissa E. Thompson
My School District Isn’t Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation.
Sociology of Education ● ● ●
Marissa E. Thompson* and Sam Trejo*
Examining the Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: The Role of Exclusionary School Discipline & Criminal Justice Contact.
Social Forces ●
Marissa E. Thompson
2023
The Role of Early Schooling in Shaping Inequality in Academic, Executive Functioning, and Social-Emotional Skills.
Socius ●
Marissa E. Thompson, Christina Weiland, Meghan P. McCormick, Catherine Snow, and Jason Sachs
From Pipelines to Pathways in the Study of Academic Progress.
Science ●
René F. Kizilcec, Rachel B. Baker, Elizabeth Bruch, Kalena E. Cortes, Laura T. Hamilton, David Nathan Lang, Zachary A. Pardos, Marissa E. Thompson , and Mitchell L. Stevens
Uneven Progress: Recent Trends in Academic Performance Among U.S. School Districts.
American Educational Research Journal ●
Kaylee T. Matheny *, Marissa E. Thompson*, Carrie Townley Flores*, and Sean F. Reardon
2021
Grade Expectations: The role of first-year grades in predicting the pursuit of STEM majors for first- and continuing-generation students.
The Journal of Higher Education ●
Marissa E. Thompson
Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale.
AERA Open ● ●
Sorathan Chaturapruek, Tobias Dalberg, Marissa E. Thompson, Sonia Giebel, Monique H. Harrison, Ramesh Johari, Mitchell L. Stevens, and René Kizilcec
2020
The Confidence Gap Predicts the Gender Pay Gap Among STEM Graduates.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ●
Adina D. Sterling, Marissa E. Thompson, Shiya Wang, Abisola Kusimo, Shannon Gilmartin, and Sheri Sheppard
2019
Entrepreneurial Intent of Engineering and Business Undergraduate Students.
Journal of Engineering Education ●
Shannon K. Gilmartin, Marissa E. Thompson, Emily Morton, Helen Chen, Anne Colby, and Sheri D. Sheppard
2016
Bioresorbable silicon electronics for transient spatiotemporal mapping of electrical activity from the cerebral cortex.
Nature Materials ●
Ki Jun Yu, Duygu Kuzum, Suk Won Hwang, Bong Hoon Kim, Halvor Juul, Nam Heon Kim, Sang Min Won, Ken Chiang, Michael Trumpis, Andrew G. Richardson, Huanyu Cheng, Hui Fang, Marissa E. Thompson, Hank Bink, Delia Talos, Kyung Jin Seo, Hee Nam Lee, Seung Kyun Kang, Jae Hwan Kim, Jung Yup Lee, Younggang Huang, Frances E. Jensen, Marc A. Dichter, Timothy H. Lucas, Jonathan Viventi, Brian Litt, and John A. Rogers