Joel Mittleman, Ph.D.

I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, with affiliations in the Population Studies Center and the Program in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.

My research analyzes inequality in schools and society with a focus on LGBTQ+ populations. Across projects, I show how LGBTQ+ populations encourage new ways of conceptualizing gender and new approaches to measuring the dynamics of gender inequality. As such, much of my research advances innovative methods for analyzing inequality beyond the binary categories of female and male.

My sole-authored research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Demography, Gender & Society, Sociology of Education, Socius, the Journal of Adolescent Health and Educational Researcher. My study, “Intersecting the Academic Gender Gap: The Education of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual America,” won Outstanding Article awards from the Inequality, Poverty & Mobility, Sex & Gender, Sociology of Population, and Sociology of Education sections of the ASA as well as from the Sociology of Education Association. My op-ed on this study was published in the Washington Post. With support from the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation, I am currently extending this research, advancing a new, non-binary history of educational stratification across 20th century America.