Lehigh Logo
Department of

Sociology & Anthropology

Linderman Library Rotunda stained glass dome
Heather Johnson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University

Heather Johnson

Associate Professor

610.758.3816
hbj2@lehigh.edu
0031 - Williams Hall
Education:

Ph.D., Sociology. Northeastern University, June 2001

B.A., Sociology. Colby College, May 1994

Explore this Profile
×

Research Areas

Additional Interests

  • Intergenerational Transfer of Social Class Privilege
  • Perpetuation of Race and Class Inequity in the Contemporary United States
  • The Sociology of Wealth and Poverty
  • Mobility, Immobility, and Ideology
  • Sociology of Education
  • Sociology of Children and Childhood

Biography

Heather Johnson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University. She graduated from Colby College in 1994, and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northeastern University in 2001. Her scholarship focuses on the intergenerational perpetuation of race and class inequality in the contemporary United States, most specifically: the transfer of social class privilege across generations. Her research and teaching interests include social class and the sociology of wealth and poverty, mobility and immobility; sociology of education; sociology of children and childhood; and dominant ideology. She regularly gives talks on her work to both academic and non-academic audiences, and is the author of numerous papers and book chapters. Professor Johnson’s first book, The American Dream and the Power of Wealth: Choosing Schools and Inheriting Inequality in the Land of Opportunity, was published by Routledge in 2006, with a fully expanded second edition published in 2015. She was Invited Guest Editor of ‘Children and Youth Speak for Themselves,’ a Special Volume of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, which was published by Emerald in 2010. She is currently working on her next book – The Glass Floor – a study of how privileged families understand their own social class status and pass along social-structural-advantage to the next generation. Heather teaches courses on race and class, children and childhood, sociology of education, and social theory. 

 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

2014.The American Dream and the Power of Wealth: Choosing Schools and Inheriting Inequality in the Land of Opportunity – Second Edition, Routledge.

2006. The American Dream and the Power of Wealth: Choosing Schools and Inheriting Inequality in the Land of Opportunity, Routledge.

Edited Volumes

2010. Children and Youth Speak for Themselves, Volume 13 (Guest Editor for Special Volume), Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Emerald.

Chapters in Books

2016. “White Mama, Black Sons” in George Yancy, ed., Our Black Sons Matter: Mothers Talk about Fears, Sorrows, and Hopes, Rowman and Littlefield.

2007. “Schools: The Great Equalizer and the Key to the American Dream,” p. 271-285 in Jeanne Ballantine and Joan Spade, eds., Schools and Society: A Sociological Approach to Education, 3rd Edition, Pine Forge Press.

2005. “Family Assets and School Access: Race and Class in the Structuring of Educational Opportunity,” p. 112-127 in Michael Sherraden, ed., Inclusion in the American Dream: Assets, Poverty, and Public Policy, Oxford University Press (with Thomas M. Shapiro).

2005. “Race, Assets, and Choosing Schools: Current School Choices and the Future of Vouchers,” p. 244-262 in Amy Stuart Wells and Janice Petrovich, eds., Bringing Equity Back: Research for a New Era in American Educational Policy, Teachers College Press (with Thomas M. Shapiro).

2003. “Good Neighborhoods, Good Schools: Race and the ‘Good Choices’ of White Families,” p. 173-187 in Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Woody Doane, eds., White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism, Routledge (with Thomas M. Shapiro).

1999. “Violence in City Schools,” in Jack Levin, Sociological Snapshots: Seeing Social Structure and Change in Everyday Life, 3rd edition, Pine Forge Press (with Jack Levin).

Articles in Refereed Journals

2001. “From the Chicago School to the New Sociology of Children: The Sociology of Children and Childhood in the United States, 1920 – 1999,” p. 53-93 in Sandra L. Hofferth and Timothy J. Owens, eds., Advances in Life Course Research, vol. 6, Children at the Millenium: Where Have We Come From, Where Are We Going?, JAI Press.

1997. “Youth Violence and the Urban Public School Response,” Journal of Research in Education, volume 7, number 1 (with Jack Levin).

Other Scholarly Publications

1997. Book Review of “White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race,” by Ian F. Lopez, New York University Press, 1996, Bimonthly Review of Law Books, May-June.

1996. Urban Law and Public Policy Report: Youth Violence and the Urban Public School Response, Urban Law and Public Policy Institute, Northeastern University School of Law (with Jack Levin).

Teaching

Race and Ethnicity 
Race and Class in America
Sociology of Education
Sociology of Children and Childhood
Upper Class: The Sociology of Privilege
Introduction to Sociology 
Development of Sociological Theory