Steven Alvarado is associate professor of sociology with research interests in global sociology and international migration; health and medicine; race and ethnicity; the sociology of education, stratification and inequality; and urban sociology. He has been a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow since 2025.
Alvarado’s research has focused on race and ethnic inequality in various domains of life – covering topics such as education, neighborhoods, employment, health, and incarceration. By studying education, immigration, the spatial concentration of poverty, and population dynamics, his research provides empirical evidence about the dynamics of socioeconomic inequality both in the US and abroad.
He has published numerous scholarly papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited collections, in addition to research bulletins and notes for lay audiences and legislators. His research uses advanced quantitative methodology to uncover the contours of inequality using federally restricted and highly accurate longitudinal national, international, and state administrative data.
Alvarado holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.