Jessica Calarco Headshot

Jessica Calarco

Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

About Jessica

Calarco's research focuses on inequalities in education, family life, and health, and she is an expert in qualitative research methods. Overarching themes in Calarco's writings include the power of privilege in society and the unfair advantages that privileged children and parents are able to secure for themselves (e.g., in schools, healthcare settings, and social interactions). Calarco has written for The Atlantic and Inside Higher Ed, and her research has been featured in the New York Times, on NPR, on BBC radio, and on CNN.

In the News

Guest on WBUR: On Point, June 4, 2024.
Guest on NPR: It's Been a Minute, May 10, 2024.
Opinion: "The N.Y.U. Chemistry Students Shouldn’t Have Needed That Petition," Jessica Calarco, The New York Times, October 7, 2022.
Opinion: "‘There’s Only so Far I Can Take Them’ – Why Teachers Give Up on Struggling Students Who Don’t Do Their Homework," Jessica Calarco (with Ilana Horn), The Conversation, September 26, 2022.
Opinion: "'There’s Almost No Incentive at All to Give Him the Vaccine.'," Jessica Calarco, The New York Times, October 25, 2021.
Opinion: "Some Parents Won’t Vaccinate Their Kids Against COVID. Here Are Their Reasons," Jessica Calarco, The Washington Post, March 29, 2021.
Opinion: "The Real Problem With the 'Naughty List'," Jessica Calarco, The Atlantic, December 24, 2020.
Opinion: "What Is Betsy DeVos Thinking?," Jessica Calarco, The New York Times, July 15, 2020.
Opinion: "When Their Kids Don’t Make the Cut," Jessica Calarco, Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2019.
Opinion: "Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test," Jessica Calarco, The Atlantic, June 1, 2018.
Opinion: "'Free Range' Parenting's Unfair Double Standard," Jessica Calarco, The Atlantic, April 3, 2018.

Publications

"Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net" (Penguin Random House, 2024).

Reveals how the U.S. uses women's unpaid and underpaid labor to maintain the illusion of a "DIY Society." Highlights the costs of this model and the myths that delude Americans into thinking we don't need a safety net and divide us by race, class, gender, and politics to keep us from coming together to demand support for all.

"Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research" (with Mario Luis Small ) (University of California Press, 2022).

Presents criteria to assess qualitative research methods such as in-depth interviewing and participant observation. Provides social scientists, researchers, students, evaluators, policy makers, and journalists with the tools needed to identify and evaluate quality in field research.

"A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum" (Princeton University Press, 2020).

Demonstrates that success in academia often depends on command of skills and knowledge that aren't explicitly taught. Discusses the origins of these hidden inequalities and illuminates key knowledge and skills that are essential for navigating every critical stage of the postgraduate experience, from deciding whether to go to grad school in the first place to finishing one's degree and landing a job.

"Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School" (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Demonstrates how students from more privileged groups learn to negotiate with teachers and, in doing so, secure unfair advantages in school. Reveals how inequalities result from complex (and often well-meaning) interactions between children, parents, teachers, and schools.