James Ainsworth
Associate Professor Sociology- Education
Ph.D., Ohio State, 1999
- Specializations
Social Stratification, Race and Ethnic Minorities, Sociology of Education, Family
- Biography
Jim Ainsworth joined the sociology faculty at Georgia State University in the Fall of 1999, after receiving his PhD in Sociology from The Ohio State University. His research addresses issues related to social stratification, race and ethnic relations, and sociology of education. He has published work in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Sociology of Education, The Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Race and Society. His work addresses issues such as 1) the oppositional culture explanation for racial disparities in educational performance, 2) the mediation of neighborhood effects on educational outcomes, 3) the differential returns to cultural capital across racial groups, 4) the effectiveness of bilingual education, 5) child well-being in single-parent households, 6) the relationship between labor market structure, participation in vocational education, and occupational trajectories, and 7) racial disparities in study abroad participation.
At Georgia State he teaches various undergraduate classes including Wealth, Power, and Inequality, Race and Ethnic Relations, Educational Sociology, and Social Research Methods. At the graduate level he teaches Social Inequality, Race and Ethnic Relations, Sociology of Education, and PhD Statistics.