Biography

Sarah K. Bruch is an associate professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.

Her research focuses broadly on social stratification and public policy. In particular, she focuses on integrating theoretical insights from relational and social theorists into the empirical study of inequalities. She brings this approach to the study of social policy, education, race, politics, and citizenship.

Her current research includes three streams. The first focuses on U.S. social policies, examining their social and distributional impacts as well as their consequences for civic and political life. The second focuses on schools as organized sites of racialized authority relations that shape life trajectories and function as formative experiences of citizenship. The third focuses on the interplay of racial and economic inequalities, seeking to clarify how they relate to each other, how they are connected to state policy choices, and how they are produced through specific relational and policy mechanisms.

These interests also inform a substantial program of engaged research on equity and inclusion in education. In this work, she collaborates with practitioners to design, collect, and analyze data of student, faculty, and staff experiences of school and campus environments; assists in the implementation and evaluation of equity-related programs and policies; and engages with stakeholders in understanding and using data to inform policy and practice decisions.

She is the principal investigator and co-director of the Equity Implemented Partnership, a research-practice partnership with school districts in Iowa. Using a research-practice model, this partnership leverages social science and education policy research and practitioner knowledge to more effectively address persistent problems of policy and practice and improve students’ educational opportunities and outcomes. In 2019, she was also the inaugural awardee of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Institutional Legacy Award for Significant Contributions to the University of Iowa for her work leading a comprehensive assessment of campus climate and engaging stakeholders to inform the University’s first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan.

In 2020, Sarah Bruch was honored with the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award​ for her contributions as an applied sociologist engaged in community-based, participatory research on educational equity, social policy, and racial inequality.

Degrees

• PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Sociology (2012)
• MPA, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington, (2005)
• BA, University of Washington, (2002)

​Research Interests

Social stratification and inequality, race and ethnicity, social policy and politics, sociology of education, political sociology, education policy, quantitative methods

Websites

Sarah Bruch Website