I was a PhD student in the department of sociology at USC from 1999 to 2005. I was jointly supervised by Curtis Roseman in the Geography department and Merrill Silverstein in the departments of Gerontology and Sociology. Based on my training at USC, my general areas of expertise are the black middle class, demography, racial residential segregation, and sociology of education. I have combined these interests to develop a research agenda. This agenda is divided into three broad areas: the black middle class, the intersection of educational attainment and racial identification, and rise in single and living alone (SALA) households. The common theme in my work is decomposing what it means to be black in America by focusing on the avenues into the black middle class and consequences of being in the black middle class.

A study stemming from my graduate work at USC and my postdoctoral work at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “The Emerging Black Middle Class: Single and Living Alone,” was published in the December 2007 issue of Social Forces and reprinted in Racism in Post-Race America: New Theories, New Directions. I have a forthcoming article in the Annual Review of Sociology on the “The Evolution of the New Black Middle Class” (with Bart Landry). In June 2010 a co-authored study with John Iceland, “The Racial Residential Segregation of Black Single Individuals Living Alone was published in City & Community.  My work has also been showcased in the Washington Post, Herald Sun, and in both Jet and Urbanite magazines. As for radio, I have appeared on WUNC's The State of Things with Frank Stasio, NC Morning News with Jack Boston, The Takeaway Morning Show with John Hockenberrry and Celeste Headlee and The Marc Steiner Show in Baltimore Maryland (November 9, 2010).

At the University of Maryland I teach courses on research methods, race relations, and racial residential segregation. I am affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center, Department of Women’s Studies, and African American Studies Department. Although I enjoy my position at the University of Maryland and have a band of wonderful colleagues, there is no place like beautiful sunny Southern California! 

Read an interview with Kris here.