Maria Kefalas is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.
Professor Kefalas earned a BA from Wellesley College in economics and worked at the Brookings Institution before receiving her MA and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and teaching at Barnard College-Columbia University, she joined the faculty of Saint Joseph's University.
She is the author of numerous books and articles including Working-Class Heroes, Promises I Can Keep (recipient of the American Sociological Association's William Goode Distinguished Book Award), and Hollowing Out the Middle.
She has received grants from the Department of Justice, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.
Her writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Root, and Slate . Her most recent paper (with Pat Carr and Susan Clampet Lundquist) studies snitching in Philadelphia neighborhoods. She teaches courses on urban inequality, classical social theory, youth and the transition to adulthood, social problems, criminal justice ethics and policy, and crime and communities.
Her latest book is a memoir titled Investing in Miracles: Harnessing the Superpower of Grief, a Mother's Journey from Heartbreak to Hope (Beacon Press, Spring 2021).
