Biography
Kevin T. Leicht is Professor and former Head of the Sociology Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and former Chair of the Department of Sociology and Director of the Iowa Social Science Research Center at The University of Iowa and past Program Officer for the Sociology and Resource Implementations for Data Intensive Research Program at the National Science Foundation. He is the past editor of Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (the official journal of the Social Stratification Section of the International Sociological Association) and The Sociological Quarterly (the official journal of the Midwest Sociological Society). He has written extensively on issues relating to economic development, globalization, and political sociology, his work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Spencer Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, and his published articles have appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, the Academy of Management Journal, Law and Society Review, and other outlets. He is the author or editor of five books including Professional Work (with Mary Fennell, published by Blackwell), and Postindustrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle-Class Prosperity (with Scott Fitzgerald) winner of the Midwest Sociological Society Best Book Award for 2009, and Middle Class Meltdown in America (2014, also with Scott Fitzgerald). His current research examines the consequences of extreme inequality in developed societies and the social and cultural consequences of male marginalization.
Research Interests
Social Inequality
Political Sociology/Political Economy
Sociology of Work
Organizations
Social Science Research Methodology
Education
Ph.D. 1987 Indiana University-Bloomington
M.A. 1983 Indiana University-Bloomington
B.S.SOC 1981 Creighton University
Courses Taught
Introductory Sociology
Political Sociology
Social Inequality and Stratification
Research Methodology
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor Emeritus, Sociology
Recent Publications
Bu, Q., Xing, D., Zhang, L., Hang, M., Leicht, K., & Lu, Q. (2024). Market or State? Post-Reform Distribution of Sociology Faculty at Chinese Universities. Education as Change, 28, Article 15439. https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/15439
Leicht, K. T. (2024). Review: F. Chubin's Proper Women: Feminism and the Politics of Respectability in Iran. Social Forces, Article soae175. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae175
Brooks, I., D’Agostino, M., Marti, M., McDowell, K., Mejia, F., Betancourt-Cravioto, M., Gatzke, L., Hicks, E., Kyser, R., Leicht, K., dos Santos, E. P., Saw, J. J. W., Tomio, A., & Saiso, S. G. (2023). An anti-infodemic virtual center for the Americas. Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica/Pan American Journal of Public Health, 47. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2023.5
Leicht, K. T., & Fennell, M. (2023). Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003225485
Leicht, K. T. (2022). Inequality and the Status Window: Inequality, Conflict, and the Salience of Status Differences in Conflicts over Resources. RSF, 8(6), 103-121. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2022.8.6.06