Samantha Friedman

Professor and Internship Director of Sociology Link

Director, Center for Social and Demographic Analysis
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

Much of my research has examined inequalities in residential attainment; residential segregation and mobility; and housing policies at the root of residential inequality by applying quantitative methods to large, secondary datasets at the ecological- and individual-levels of analysis. More recently, I have done work examining health disparities as they relate to racial and ethnic residential inequalities, segregation, institutional redlining, weather extremes, and power outages. Taken together, my research fits squarely in the CAPS signature theme of health and well-being, and all three cross-cutting themes of policy, place, and specific populations. A central aim of my latest research is to understand whether and how older adults’ exposure to redlining policy in early life, when they were children or young adults, affects their later-life mortality and health. Our research significantly advances work in this area by examining people’s exposure to redlining at the time when it was legal in the 1940s and its impact on later-life mortality and health. My other active project involves the examination of extreme weather on the health of segments of the older-adult population, including socioeconomically disadvantaged adults and people of color. This project significantly advances existing work in this literature by examining the joint effect of weather extremes and disasters (e.g., extreme heat and power outages). Results from this work are expected to contribute to the development of communication strategies to alert older adults of these climate hazards in order to prevent future adverse health outcomes. In addition, I have examined the spatial variation of COVID-19 mortality as it relates to the racial, ethnic, and nativity status composition of neighborhoods in New York City.