Christel Kesler

Education

B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., University of California-Berkeley
Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley

Areas of Expertise

• social inequality

• international migration

• social policy

• cross-national research

• research methods

Personal Information

FULL CV

Christel Kesler is Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology. She joined the Colby faculty in 2017. Her research focuses on cross-national comparisons of social inequality. She is particularly interested in how political-economic institutions and social policies shape the experiences of immigrants and their host societies in North America and Western Europe. She has worked on several projects that consider immigrant socioeconomic incorporation in various countries. Other recent projects examine immigration-driven diversity's effects on social solidarity and the welfare state and patterns of racial, ethnic, and national belonging among immigrants' descendants. Professor Kesler's work has appeared in journals such as the International Migration Review, Social Science Research, and Social Forces. Professor Kesler teaches numerous courses on social inequality, social policy, international migration, methods for social research, and data analysis.

Recent publications include:

Kesler, Christel. 2022. “Inequality, Immigration, and Welfare Regimes: Untangling the Connections.” Pp. 297-320 in Handbook on Migration and Welfare, edited by Markus M.L. Crepaz. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kesler, Christel and Sarah Bash (Colby College '21). 2021. “A Growing Educational Divide in the COVID-19 Economy Is Especially Pronounced among Parents.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 7: 1-3.

Kesler, Christel and Amber Churchwell (Colby College '20). 2020. “The Obama Effect on Perceived Mobility.” Societies 10(2): 46. Complete code for this paper.

Kesler, Christel. 2020. “Maternal Employment When Children Are in Preschool: Variations by Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity.” Social Science Research 85: 102349.

Kesler, Christel. 2018. “Gender Norms, Work-Family Policies, and Labor Force Participation among Immigrant and Native-born Women in Western Europe.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 4: 1-16.

Kesler, Christel and Mirna Safi. 2018. “Immigrants in the Labour Markets of France and the United Kingdom: Integration Models, Institutional Variations, and Ethnic Inequalities.” Migration Studies 6(2): 225-250.

Kesler, Christel and Luisa Farah Schwartzman. 2015. “From Multi-Racial Subjects to Multi-Cultural Citizens: Social Stratification and Ethnic and Racial Classification among Children of Immigrants in the United Kingdom.” International Migration Review 49(3): 790-836.

Kesler, Christel. 2015. “Welfare States and Immigrant Poverty: Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in Comparative Perspective.” Acta Sociologica 58(1): 39-61.