Assistant Professor
he/him
Steven Schmidt is an urban sociologist who studies how rental housing markets widen family inequality. Most of his work falls into two research strands. In one, he examines how features of rental housing searches—such as landlord screening, moving timelines, and search strategies—contribute to inequalities in residential contexts. In another, he examines how displacement pressures shape family wellbeing even before forced moves occur. Much of his research focuses on the experiences of Latino immigrant families, in particular, and seeks to bridge the subfields of immigration, family, and urban sociology. His work appears in the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, the Journal of Marriage and Family, City & Community, among other outlets.
Schmidt received his B.A. in Spanish and International Studies from Kenyon College and his Ph.D. in sociology from UC Irvine. Prior to BU, he was a National Science Foundation SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California and an affiliated researcher at USC’s Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC). His work has been supported by the NSF, the Haynes Foundation, USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC-MEXUS).