Maria Krysan

Email Address: krysan@uic.edu
College: Liberal Arts and Sciences Department: Sociology
Title: Professor
Office: 4112E Phone: 996 5575
Participating in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Awards program: No

Research Interest:
Maria Krysan (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1995), a Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, focuses her research on racial residential segregation and racial attitudes. Her investigations of these substantive issues often connect to methodological questions about how to study this sensitive area of social life. She combines standard closed-ended survey analysis with mode of administration experiments, analyses of open-ended survey questions, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. She is co-author (with H. Schuman, L. Bobo and C. Steeh) of the book Racial Attitudes in American: Trends and Interpretations (Harvard University Press, Revised Edition, 1997), and is responsible for a website that updates the data from that book (http://www.igpa.uillinois.edu/programs/racialAttitudes/). Maria Krysan is also the Director of the Chicago Area Study (http://igpa.uillinois.edu/cas/), a funding and training opportunity for UIC graduate students and faculty members that provides cutting-edge, original social science research about the Chicago area to scholars, community-based practitioners, and public policy analysts.

Minimum time commitment in hours per week: 5

Qualifications of a Student:
Most important to me is a student who is excited about learning about research, and is interested in getting hands-on experience on a research project related to issues of race, residential segregation, and racial attitudes. It would be desirable, but not required, if the student had taken a social science research methods course; and/or was a sociology or other social sciences major; and/or was a junior or senior.

Brief Summary of what is expected from the student:
I have several research projects related to the topic of racial residential segregation and housing issues in the city of Chicago. In particular for this position (Fall 2013 with the possibility of also extending into Spring 2014) I am looking for a student who would like to be involved in a community-based study of housing issues in Chicago. The student would be expected to work with a small research team (which includes a community partner, as well as a graduate student RA) that is collecting data (through focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a community assessment) that will inform a proposed housing strategy for a Chicago neighborhood. Experience in conducting this kind of research is not required; a strong desire to learn how to do this kind of research, and to pitch in and help complete the tasks, is required.

NOTE: This researcher is currently not accepting applications for the Undergraduate Research Experience program.

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