Assistant Professor Gillian Slee is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia. Her work focuses on understanding and ameliorating inequality in American state processes. To this end, she has studied issues and institutions with far-reaching consequences: public defense, eviction, child protective services, and parole. With each of her projects, Slee aims to humanize key state processes and demonstrate how institutions’ relational dynamics shape inequality. She uses a range of methods—ethnography, in-depth interviews, and statistics—and has published her work in Criminology, Theory and Society, Social Service Review, Politics & Society, and Journal of Marriage and Family. Slee completed her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy at Princeton University in 2024. She earned her M.Phil. in Criminology at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Herchel Smith Harvard Scholar. Slee graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Social Studies and a minor in Psychology. She completed her postdoc at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), where Slee was the Gerhard Casper Fellow in Rule of Law. Her research has been recognized with Centennial, Charlotte Elizabeth Procter, Marion J. Levy, Jr., and P.E.O. Scholar fellowships. Education Education: Ph.D., Sociology and Social Policy, Princeton University, 2024 M.A., Sociology, Princeton University, 2020 M.Phil., Criminology, University of Cambridge, 2017 A.B., Social Studies, Harvard College, 2016 Other Affiliations: Enter the name of department or institution you are affiliated with Research Research Areas: Inequality Crime, Law, and Deviance Work, Occupations, and Organizations Selected Publications Selected Publications: Slee, Gillian. 2025. “Home but Not Free: Rule‐breaking, Withdrawal, and Dignity in Reentry.” Criminology. Gilson, Madeleine, Gillian Slee, and Matthew Desmond. 2025. “Calling on Kin: Poverty, the Family Safety Net, and Child Welfare Policy.” Journal of Marriage and Family 87(1):53–73. Slee, Gillian. 2023. “Of the State, against the State: Public Defenders, Street-Level Bureaucracy, and Discretion in Criminal Court.” Social Service Review 97(4):675–718. Slee, Gillian, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Resignation without Relief: Democratic Governance and the Relinquishing of Parental Rights.” Theory and Society 52(4):583–623. Slee, Gillian, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Eviction and Voter Turnout: The Political Consequences of Housing Instability.” Politics & Society 51(1):3–29. (Published online in 2021) Courses Regularly Taught Courses Regularly Taught: SOCI 2600 SOCI 3580
