People
Christian Smith
Assistant Professor of Higher Education
Christian Michael Smith studies class stratification in U.S. society, with particular attention to education as the central social institution where class inequality can either replicate across generations or be disrupted. Much of his scholarship shows the payoff of conceptualizing and operationalizing class with greater nuance. He applies quasi-experimental designs and other causal inference strategies to U.S. national surveys and large, statewide education databases.
Christian has published his research in a variety of academic journals across disciplines, including Social Forces, Educational Researcher, Research in Higher Education, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Socius, Social Currents, Sociology of Education, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, and The American Mathematical Monthly.
Christian is an enthusiast of evidence-based teaching. He holds a Pedagogy Certificate from the University of California, Merced, and has more than a decade of training in how to teach math and statistics effectively and equitably.
Christian earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his B.A. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and B.A. in Educational Studies from Macalester College. Before joining the McBee Institute in 2024, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Higher Education, Race, and the Economy Lab at the University of California, Merced.
Curriculum Vitae:
Smith_CV_Aug26.pdf
Education 
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S. in Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A. in Applied Mathematics & Statistics and B.A. in Educational Studies, Macalester College
Professional Appointments
Courses Regularly Taught:
EDHI 8910
EDHI 8910L
EDHI 9070
Publications
Jeffrey, W., C.M. Smith, and L.T. Hamilton. “Hidden Advantage along the Pipeline: Family Wealth and Educational Transitions from High School through Graduate School.” Sociology of Education (forthcoming/online first)
Smith, C.M., L.T. Hamilton, and C. Eaton. 2025. “Wealth, Race, and Under-Addressed Financial Need in Federal Student Aid Policy.” Research in Higher Education 66(5):31.1-31.24.
Smith, C.M., A.D. Villalobos (equal authors), L.T. Hamilton, C. Eaton. 2024. “Promising or Predatory? Online Education in Non-Profit and For-Profit Universities.” Social Forces, 102(3):952-977.
Smith, C.M. and N. Hirschl. 2023 “Mixed Signals? Economically (Dis)advantaged Students’ College Attendance under Mandatory College and Career Readiness Assessments.” Educational Researcher 52(3):131-143.
Hirschl, N. and C.M. Smith. 2023. “Advanced Placement Gatekeeping and Racialized Tracking.” Sociology of Education 96(3):190-210.
Smith, C.M. 2022. “Does State Allocation of University Funding Moderate Effectively Maintained Inequality?” Social Currents 9(3):245-264.
Smith, C.M. 2020. “In the Footsteps of Siblings: College Attendance Disparities and the Intragenerational Transmission of Educational Advantage.” Socius 6:2378023120921633.
Hirschl, N. and C.M. Smith. 2020. “Well-Placed: The Geography of Opportunity and High School Effects on College Attendance.” Research in Higher Education 61(5):567-587.
Smith, C.M., E. Grodsky, and J.R. Warren. 2019. “Late-Stage Educational Inequality: Can Selection on Noncognitive Skills Explain Waning Social Background Effects?” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 63:100424.
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