About Jeff Cates

Research Interests:

Sociology of work, environmental sociology, and socioeconomic inequality, primarily related to race, ethnicity, and the (mis)use of technology. My Master’s thesis focuses on “rent-to-own” businesses and their relationship to low-income communities, with a heavy reliance on qualitative methods. For more information, check out the recently published article Poverty Delivered in the public sociology journal Contexts

Education

I received a Master’s degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Political Economy from the University of Tennessee in 2021. I also obtained a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from Boise State University in 2019 and participated in qualitative research for the Inter-Mountain Social Research Lab (IMSRL) from 2017-2019. Additionally, I achieved an Associate’s degree from the College of Western Idaho in Liberal Arts in 2017.