Erin Cech

Dr. Erin Cech is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan.  Before coming to Michigan in 2016, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and was on faculty at Rice University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2011 from the University of California, San Diego and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Sociology from Montana State University.  Cech's research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction--specifically, how inequality is reproduced through processes that are not overtly discriminatory or coercive, but rather those that are built into seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices. Her work on inequality in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions focuses on the recruitment and retention of women, LGBTQ, and racial/ethnic minority persons in STEM degree programs and STEM jobs. Cech’s research is funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including the first grant ever awarded by NSF to study LGBTQ inclusion in STEM. She is a member of the editorial board of the American Sociological Review and her research has been cited in The New York Times, The Guardian, Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post, and the news sections of Science and Nature.