Poverty, by America

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. He achieved public prominence with the publication of his previous book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2017, as well as many other prestigious awards.

Desmond grew up in Arizona, the son of a preacher father and a mother who worked various low-wage jobs. As a student at Arizona State University, his parents lost their home to foreclosure, after which Desmond began to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, the organization championed by former President Jimmy Carter to build affordable housing for those in need. He also spent time with those whose situation was more dire than his own. He decided to make an academic career out of his interest in poverty, earning an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison while living in a trailer park for part of his graduate studies.

In 2015, he received a scholarship from the prestigious MacArthur Fellows Program (commonly known as a “genius grant”), dedicated to funding those whose work contributes to a more equitable and peaceful society. At Princeton, he runs the Eviction Lab, a team that aggregates nationwide data in the hope of sponsoring laws and other policies to ensure residential security.