About

Joe Sageman is a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He researches how schools facilitate upward mobility for their students, especially in high-poverty contexts. His work sits at the intersection of social stratification, the sociology of education, and urban sociology. His book project, under contract with the University of Chicago Press, explains how public high schools in Philadelphia prepare students differently for college, careers, and adulthood. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University in 2025 and is a former high school math teacher and basketball coach. He uses a range of qualitative and quantitative methods and has published his work in peer-reviewed journals including Social Problems, Sociological Inquiry, and Rural Sociology.