
Christopher Muller
Associate Professor
Office
496 Social Sciences Building
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae48.24 KB
Research Interests
Inequality, Incarceration, Historical Sociology, Social Theory
On sabbatical, 2022-2023
I study the political economy of incarceration in the United States from Reconstruction to the present. I am particularly interested in how agricultural labor markets, migration, and struggles over land and labor have affected incarceration and racial and class inequality in incarceration. I have also written on the causes and effects of environmental inequality and inequality in death from infectious disease.
Representative Publications
- Christopher Muller and Alexander F. Roehrkasse. 2022. "Racial and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration in the Early Twenty-First Century." Social Forces 101:803-828.
- James J. Feigenbaum, Lauren Hoehn-Velasco, Christopher Muller, and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field. 2022. "1918 Every Year: Racial Inequality in Infectious Mortality, 1906-1942." American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings 112:199-204.
- Christopher Muller and Daniel Schrage. 2021. "The Political Economy of Incarceration in the Cotton South, 1910-1925." American Journal of Sociology 127:828-866.
- Christopher Muller. 2021. "Exclusion and Exploitation: The Incarceration of Black Americans from Slavery to the Present." Science 374:282-286.
- James J. Feigenbaum, Christopher Muller, and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field. 2019. "Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900-1948." Demography 56:1371-1388.
- Peter K. Enns, Youngmin Yi, Megan Comfort, Alyssa W. Goldman, Hedwig Lee, Christopher Muller, Sara Wakefield, Emily A. Wang, and Christopher Wildeman. 2019. "What Percentage of Americans Have Ever Had a Family Member Incarcerated?: Evidence from the Family History of Incarceration Survey (FamHIS)." Socius 5:1-45.
- Christopher Muller. 2018. "Freedom and Convict Leasing in the Postbellum South." American Journal of Sociology 124:367-405.
- Christopher Muller, Robert J. Sampson, and Alix S. Winter. 2018. "Environmental Inequality: The Social Causes and Consequences of Lead Exposure." Annual Review of Sociology 44:263-282.
- Deirdre Bloome, James J. Feigenbaum, and Christopher Muller. 2017. "Tenancy, Marriage, and the Boll Weevil Infestation, 1892-1930." Demography 54:1029-1049.
- Jonathan L. Zelner, Christopher Muller, and James J. Feigenbaum. 2017. "Racial Inequality in the Annual Risk of Tuberculosis Infection in the United States, 1910-1933." Epidemiology & Infection 145:1797-1804.
- Christopher Muller and Christopher Wildeman. 2016. "Geographic Variation in the Cumulative Risk of Imprisonment and Parental Imprisonment in the United States." Demography 53:1499-1509.
- Deirdre Bloome and Christopher Muller. 2015. "Tenancy and African American Marriage in the Postbellum South." Demography 52:1409-1430.
- Christopher Muller and Daniel Schrage. 2014. "Mass Imprisonment and Trust in the Law." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 651:139-158.
- Bruce Western and Christopher Muller. 2013. "Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 647:166-189.
- Christopher Muller. 2012. "Northward Migration and the Rise of Racial Disparity in American Incarceration, 1880-1950." American Journal of Sociology 118:281-326.
- Christopher Wildeman and Christopher Muller. 2012. "Mass Imprisonment and Inequality in Health and Family Life." Annual Review of Law and Social Science 8:11-30.
Shorter pieces
- Christopher Muller. 2017. "Tools for Historical Sociologists." Trajectories: Newsletter of the ASA Comparative and Historical Sociology Section 28: 32-35.
- Christopher Muller. 2015. "Politics and Science in the Work of W. E. B. Du Bois." European Journal of Sociology 56:407-412.
- Christopher Wildeman, Anna R. Haskins, and Christopher Muller. 2013. "Implications of Mass Imprisonment for Inequality Among American Children," pp. 177-191 in The Punitive Turn: New Approaches to Race and Incarceration, edited by Deborah E. McDowell, Claudrena N. Harold, and Juan Battle. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
- Christopher Muller and Christopher Wildeman. 2012. "Punishment and Inequality," pp. 169-185 in The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society, edited by Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks. London: Sage.