Elizabeth Martin

• 2024 Fall
  • SOC 300 Selected Topics - Student Debt and Inequality
  • SOC 102 Social Problems

Elizabeth C. Martin (she/her/hers) joins the Sociology Department in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in fall 2024 as a tenure-track assistant professor. She will teach classes in social stratification and inequality, political economy, and quantitative methods.

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Martin was a Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University. Martin’s research focuses on the intersection of inequality and the political economy, with special attention to economic insecurity, credit and debt, social policy, and financial shocks.

A recent award-winning publication demonstrated how U.S. states’ asset exemption laws affect people’s economic security. In other published work, Martin has shown how the Great Recession in the United States exacerbated student loan burden and financial stress, particularly among Black and Hispanic individuals. 

Martin received several prestigious fellowships during her graduate training, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Distinguished University Fellowship at The Ohio State University. Her scholarly work has been recognized with two Student Paper Awards from the American Sociological Association in 2020 and the 2018 Randy Hodson Graduate Student Paper Award from the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University. She has held several elected and appointed positions within the American Sociological Association and Ohio State Sociology.

Martin earned a Ph.D. in 2022 and an M.A. in 2017 from The Ohio State University, and a B.S. in international affairs and political science from Florida State University in 2014. 

Sponsored by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Sponsored by Distinguished University Fellowship at Ohio State University.

• Journal Articles
  • Martin, E., "Regulating the Risk of Debt: Exemption Laws and Economic Insecurity Across US States, 1986-2012." American Journal of Sociology, 2022.
  • Norris, D., Martin, E., "Is Good Credit Good? State Credit Ratings and Economic Insecurity, 1996-2012." Sociological Forum, 2022.
  • Martin, E., Dwyer, R. E., "Financial Stress, Race, and Student Debt during the Great Recession." Social Currents, 2021.
• Book Chapter
  • Downey, D. B., Yoon, A. and Martin, E., "Schools and Inequality: Implications from Seasonal Comparison Research." In Handbook of the Sociology of Education in the 21st Century. Schneider, B. (ed.) Springer, Cham, 2018.
• Dissertation
  • Martin, E., Sheltered from the Storm? Social Policy and Economic Insecurity in US States. , 2022.

American Sociological Association Meeting, "Does State Policy Moderate Economic Insecurity?" (August, 2021)

Dwyer, R. E., Martin, E., American Sociological Association, "The Demography of Student Debt: Population Exposure to Educational Loans and Inequalities in Financial Risk" (August, 2020)

Norris, D. N., Martin, E., Comparative Historical Social Sciences Working Group conference, Northwestern University, "Markets and the States: Analyzing State Government Orientation Towards Financial Markets, 1825-2019" (April, 2020)

Dwyer, R. E., Martin, E., Population Association of American, "The Demography of Student Debt: Population Exposure to Educational Loans and Inequalities in Financial Risk" (April, 2020)

Norris, D. N., Martin, E., American Sociological Association, "Is Good Credit Good? State Credit Ratings and Economic Insecurity, 1996-2012" (August, 2019)

Martin, E., Dwyer, R. E., American Sociological Association, "Student Loans and Financial Hardship during the Great Recession" (August, 2019)

Norris, D. N., Martin, E., Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, "Is Good Credit Good? State Credit Ratings and Economic Insecurity, 1996-2012" (June, 2019)

Consumers and Consumption Section Student Paper Award, ASA (2020)

Sociology of Law Section Student Paper Award, ASA (2020)

Randy Hodson Graduate Student Paper Award, OSU Department of Sociology (2018)

Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2015)

Kingsbury Data Award, Northwest Evaluation Association (2015)