Rate My Professor Max Besbris

Besbris's research investigates decision-making in economic markets, particularly housing and neighborhoods, how social interactions shape these decisions, and their consequences for racial and socio-spatial inequalities, with growing attention to climate change impacts on real estate and residential choices. He authored Upsold: Real Estate Agents, Prices, and Neighborhood Inequality (University of Chicago Press, 2020), recipient of the Midwest Sociological Society's Distinguished Book Award (2022), and co-authored Soaking the Middle Class: Suburban Inequality and Recovery from Disaster (Russell Sage Foundation, 2022) with Anna Rhodes. Key publications include “A Sociology of Real Estate: Polanyi, Du Bois, and the Relational Study of Commodified Land in a Climate-Changed Future” (Annual Review of Sociology, 2024), “The Housing Regime as a Barrier to Climate Action” (npj Climate Action, 2024), and “Effect of Neighborhood Stigma on Economic Transactions” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015). His work has earned awards such as the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship (2025-2030), Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from ASA's Consumers & Consumption Section (2025), and Early Career Public Sociology Award from the Eastern Sociological Society (2023), among others including NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2011-2014).