Josipa Roksa is Assistant Professor of Sociology, with a courtesy appointment in the Curry School of Education. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, in Psychology from Mount Holyoke College, and Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University (NYU).

To what extent does education amplify, preserve, or reduce social inequality? This has been the central question guiding Prof. Roksa’s scholarly inquiry. In addressing this question, she has aimed to extend the conversation beyond focusing on academics to consider broader social contexts of education. She has thus examined the role of state contexts in shaping access and attainment in higher education, the importance of life course transitions, including work, marriage/cohabitation and parenthood, for educational success, and the role of parenting in fostering academic achievement among K-12 students. Moreover, she has studied not only entry and completion in higher education (i.e., who enrolls and who graduates), but also what happens within colleges and universities, what activities students engage in and how that shapes their learning.

Professor Roksa is co-author of Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press, 2011). Moreover, her research has been published in a range of peer-reviewed journals, including Social Forces, Sociology of Education, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Teachers College Record, Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Social Science Research.

Professor Roksa teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in social stratification, education, research methods, and statistics. She was named a University Teaching Fellow (UTF) for the 2008-2009 academic year and a Mead Honored Faculty for the 2010-2011 academic year. Moreover, she is currently a Fellow of the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education.

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R28 Conference
“Labor Market and Educational Transitions in Uncertain Times” August 13-15, 2012

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Selected Publications

Books

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2011.

Selected Recent Articles

Roksa, Josipa, and Melissa Velez.  (Forthcoming).  “A Late Start: Delayed Entry, Life Course Transitions, and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment.” Social Forces.

Roksa, Josipa, and Daniel Potter.  (Forthcoming) “Parenting and Academic Achievement: Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Advantage.” Sociology of Education.

Roksa, Josipa, and Tania Levey.  2010. “What Can You Do with That Degree? College Major and Occupational Status of College Graduates over Time.”  Social Forces 89:389-416.

Roksa, Josipa.  2010.  “Bachelor’s Degree Completion across State Contexts: Does the Distribution of Enrollments Make a Difference?”  Research in Higher Education 51:1-20.

Roksa, Josipa, and Melissa Velez. 2010.  “When Studying Schooling is not enough: Incorporating Employment in Models of Educational Transitions.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 28:5-21.

Courses

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