Rate My Professor Rory Kramer

Rory Kramer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Villanova University, affiliated with the Africana Studies program. He holds a B.A. in American Studies from Williams College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, complemented by a Graduate Certificate in Africana Studies from the same institution. Kramer's research centers on the physical and social boundaries of race in the United States, including the role of infrastructure such as roads in maintaining racial residential segregation in Philadelphia. His work addresses criminal justice's impact on racial justice, incarceration's effects on redistricting and political representation, violence in contemporary policing, spatial inequality, and the experiences of social mobility through elite education, multiracial identity, and racial fluidity among Black students at selective colleges.

Kramer's contributions include the 2023 book Young, Gifted, and Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite, published by Princeton University Press and co-authored with Camille Z. Charles, Douglas S. Massey, and Kimberly C. Torres, which explores intraracial diversity among Black undergraduates at elite institutions. Key articles feature Out with the old, in with the new? Habitus and social mobility at selective colleges (Sociology of Education, 2013), Stop, frisk, and assault? Racial disparities in police use of force during investigatory stops (Law & Society Review, 2018), and The slow violence of contemporary policing (Annual Review of Criminology, 2022). He serves on the editorial boards of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and Sociological Currents, and holds roles on Villanova's Academic Policy Committee, Faculty Rights & Responsibilities Committee, and Faculty Congress. His research on incarceration and redistricting has influenced policy discussions in Pennsylvania.