Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Maxwell Professor’s Research on Racial and Ethnic Exclusion Supported by Russell Sage Foundation Grant

Friday, January 19, 2024, By Jessica Youngman
Share
facultyMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairsresearch
A man smiles for a headshot

Thomas Pearson

Thomas Pearson, assistant professor of economics in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is part of a team of scholars who have been awarded $195,000 from the Russell Sage Foundation to study the exclusion and expulsion of minority groups from U.S. towns and cities between 1850 and 1950.

Their project, “The Geography of Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Uncovering a Hidden History of Expulsion and Exclusion,” will result in a nationwide dataset detailing the expulsion and exclusion of minority groups that occurred locally, even if illegal at the federal level.

The team aims to identify understudied forms of exclusion such as “sundown towns” to characterize both the causes of racial/ethnic exclusion and its consequences for affected groups and places. They hope to identify systematic factors driving these events and impacts on affected populations. They also seek to reveal demographic, cultural and economic changes in the identified places, with a focus on African Americans, Chinese and Mexicans who were most affected.

The funding is awarded by the Russell Sage Foundation’s program on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration, which supports innovative research that examines the roles of race, ethnicity, nativity, legal status—and their interactions with each other and other social categories—in the social, economic, and political outcomes for immigrants, U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities, and native-born whites.

In addition to Pearson, the team includes Samuel Bazzi of the University of California at San Diego; Eric Chyn of the University of Texas at Austin; Andreas Ferrara of the University of Pittsburgh; Martin Fiszbein of Boston University; and Patrick Testa of Tulane University. Bazzi is leading the project.

Pearson previously collaborated with teammates Bazzi, Ferrara, Fiszbein and Testa. “The Other Great Migration: Southern Whites and the New Right” was published in the August 2023 issue of Quarterly Journal of Economics, while “Sundown Towns and Racial Exclusion: The Southern White Diaspora and the ‘Great Retreat’” appeared in the American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings in May 2022.

Before joining Maxwell in 2022, Pearson served as an instructor, teaching fellow and research assistant at Boston University and as a research associate in Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He also served in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. He earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in May 2022.

  • Author

Jessica Youngman

  • Recent
  • Harnessing Sport Fandom for Character Development: Grant Supports Innovative Initiative
    Monday, September 1, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • What’s New at Campus Dining in Fall 2025?
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Jennifer DeMarchi
  • DPS Pilots License Plate Reader Technology to Enhance Campus Safety
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Kiana Racha
  • IDJC Welcomes Fall 2025 Visiting Fellows Nathaniel Rakich and Miranda Spivack
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Genaro Armas
  • Libraries Announces Fall 2025 Workshops
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Cristina Hatem

More In Campus & Community

What’s New at Campus Dining in Fall 2025?

As students, faculty and staff are welcomed back to campus for the fall semester, Campus Dining is celebrating upgrades at several of its retail locations and introducing a new, health-forward station at Ernie Davis, responding to student feedback about dietary…

DPS Pilots License Plate Reader Technology to Enhance Campus Safety

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) has launched a pilot program to test license plate reader (LPR) technology on campus, expanding its tools to help ensure a safe and welcoming environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors. Unlike surveillance systems…

Libraries Announces Fall 2025 Workshops

Syracuse University Libraries is hosting workshops for the Fall 2025 semester. All events are free and open to attend for all Syracuse University students, faculty and staff. Registration is required. For more information on the fall workshops, visit Learn! At…

Course Redesign Institute Offers Tools, Tactics to Boost Student Outcomes

The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) recently hosted the Course Redesign Institute (CRI), guiding 20 faculty members in best practices to assess how they teach, changes to make a course more enjoyable and more effective, and high-impact tactics that…

Libraries’ Receives George W. Hamilton Collection of Books on Printing and Typography

Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) was recently gifted the George W. Hamilton Book Collection from George W. Hamilton ’53, G’54. The collection documents the history and practice of fine press printing in Europe, particularly Austria, and North…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.