Stone Center Announces Undergraduate Thesis Awardees

The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility Undergraduate Thesis Award, created in 2023, is annually awarded to two exceptional University of Chicago undergraduate students who have produced exemplary research on topics of inequality in the United States or cross-culturally comparative contexts. One is awarded to a student who conducts their research within the social sciences, and the other to a student who performs their research within public policy. 

The award is named after the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation, the mission of which is to promote a more knowledgeable and inclusive society, placing special emphasis on environmental sustainability and the mitigation of wealth inequality. At the University of Chicago, the Stone Center is a research hub that enables world-leading scholars to deepen their understanding of the inequality in society and formulate new approaches to address the challenge of creating a more equitable society.

The Stone Center awards recipients a $250 prize, issues a certificate of achievement, and jointly recognizes them with their home programs.

“It is with enormous pride that we issue our inaugural thesis awards to these young scholars,” said Grace Hammond, the Executive Director of the Stone Center at the University of Chicago. “Not only have these students displayed great promise as researchers they have also demonstrated a commitment to understanding complex policy issues and our hope is that their work will inspire future research on the topic.”

The awardees are listed below:

Stone Thesis Award for Public Policy

“A Growing Safety Net: Work and Income for Single Mother Families in the 2007-09 Recession”

Academic Year 2022-2023: Sophie Yang

Abstract: Research shows the U.S. safety net was generous to single-mother households in the Great Recession of 2007–09. However, research has also suggested the safety net failed to sufficiently target single-mother households. This raises the question: Did the Recession differentially impact single-mother households, and how did the safety net respond? I use survey data for the years 2005–2010 from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) to investigate how the dependence on the safety net and the employment of single-mother households transformed in the Recession. I first use a probit model to correct for a well-studied data concern in the CPS ASEC in which households underreport their government benefits. Then, using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that compared to married households, single-mother households in the Recession disproportionately lost employment and became more dependent on government transfers for income than married households. My results—that single-mother households faced additional employment loss as well as additional dependence on government transfers—suggest that in the Recession, social policy indeed increasingly targeted single-mother homes to mediate a loss in income. Further research may investigate specific program expansions to better understand the behavioral impacts of increasingly targeting single-mother households.

Bio: Sophie Yang received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy Studies and Economics. For the past two years, she has worked as a research assistant at the Comprehensive Income Dataset Project at the Harris School under Professor Bruce D. Meyer, where she fostered a passion for using data to design and measure the impact of social welfare programs. She has also served as a project leader in the University's Phoenix Sustainability Initiative. Following graduation, Sophie will work as an Associate at Boston Consulting Group in Boston, MA.

Stone Thesis Award for the Social Sciences

“Reproduction of Elites: Pre-professional Clubs in Elite Universities”

Academic Year 2022-2023: Minghao Sun

Abstract: Many scholars have paid attention to the highly exclusive pipeline between elite universities and elite professional service firms like investment banks and consulting firms (Ho 2009, Rivera 2015). Existing work primarily focuses on the role of cultural capital in enabling graduates of elite schools to break into these industries but fails to account for the processes through which students acquire that capital in the first place. To fill this gap, I adopt a processual and organizational approach by looking at the role of pre-professional student clubs in incubating and cultivating students with the right cultural capital and normative ideals. Using a combination of interviews and ethnographic observations, I argue that pre-professional student clubs play a pivotal role in inculcating students with the right cultural capital, values, and normative beliefs that align with the expectation of elite professional service firms. These processes, however, also allow students to naturalize exclusion and reinforce the reproduction of hierarchies and inequalities that are racialized and classed, despite their efforts to increase diversity and inclusion.

Bio: Minghao Sun received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. His academic journey began with a focus on political science and economics; however, during his third year, Minghao discovered Sociology and decided to pursue the major because of its unique power to unpack complex social processes and institutions and inform us about our lives. Beyond his studies at UChicago, Minghao has interned in a U.S.-China-focused think tank, worked for a liberal-arts education non-profit in less developed regions in China, and worked for the Neighborhood School’s Program. Post-graduation, he will work at Dalberg, an international-development-focused consulting firm, while considering the possibility of graduate school.