Amanda Freeman

Education

PhD, Boston College

MA, Boston College

MFA. Columbia University

AB, Brown University

Amanda Freeman is a sociologist whose scholarship examines work-family conflict and the impact of the low-wage labor market on women and families. Her research interests include poverty, social policy, qualitative methods and education. Her critically acclaimed, co-authored book, Getting Me Cheap: How Low-Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty was published by the New Press in 2022. She was the co-recipient of a Presidential Award for Early Career Scholars from the Russell Sage Foundation for 2017-2019 to explore the experience of low-income parents pursuing higher education in the United States.

She collaborates with several area nonprofits including the Aurora Foundation and the Women’s Advancement Initiative to conduct program evaluations and qualitative research including interviews and focus groups to examine the experience of women and girls. Amanda is also a public sociologist who translates her research about the struggles of low-income families into news articles for media outlets including the Atlantic. She received the Dentler Award from the public sociology section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in recognition of “exceptional research and writing on the challenges facing low-income single mother-headed families and communication of research and its policy implications to a broader audience.”

At the University of Hartford, Professor Freeman teaches a variety of courses including the Senior Capstone, Inequality, Social Welfare, Sociology of the Family, and Introduction to Sociology.