People

Research Interests:

Pamela Smock is Professor of Sociology and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center. Her scholarly interests lie at the intersection of demography and various axes of inequality.

Her research focuses on changing family patterns in the U.S., family formation and dissolution, the economic consequences of divorce and marriage for women and men, cohabitation, nonresident fatherhood, single-mother families, the motherhood wage penalty, gender and work, and socioeconomic and racial-ethnic variation in family patterns.

Professor Smock’s work has been published in leading sociology and demography journals including American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Demography, Journal of Marriage and Family and Social Forces. Currently, Professor Smock is examining the intersection of relationship biographies, including older life-long single adults, and late-life economic well-being – and the role of the structure of Social Security benefits in maintaining economic disparities. Another recent project uses an intersectional lens to examine the economic fallout of family disruption for Latine, white, and Black men and women.

She has served as Editor-in-Chief of Demography and Deputy Editor of Journal of Marriage and Family, as well as on the editorial boards of numerous journals (e.g., American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Science Research). She was President of the Association of Population Centers and an elected Board member of the Population Association of America. She has served as Chair of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), council member of the ASA’s Population Section, and Board member of Council on Contemporary Families. She has served on numerous review panels for the National Institutes of Health and is an elected member of the honorary society Sociological Research Association.

Smock has been quoted in media outlets including the New York Times, TIME Magazine, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and the Los Angeles Times and a guest on other outlets such as NPR and CNN.

She holds a PhD in sociology with a specialization in demography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago, and a BA in sociology from the University of Chicago.