Virtual Calvin January Series: Matthew Desmond

Matthew Desmond: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew is a sociologist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and the founder and principal investigator of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. He is the author of four books, each of which looks at socio-economic habits that perpetuate poverty and housing inequality.

His most recent book, Poverty, By America is a New York Times bestseller and explores why the U.S. has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to reach his conclusion: Poverty persists because the rest of us benefit from it. To become poverty abolitionists, Desmond argues that we must engage in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and true freedom.

Desmond is also the author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City and On the Fireline as well as the coauthor of two books on race and the editor of a collection of studies on severe deprivation in America. He’s written essays on educational inequality, dangerous work, political ideology, race, and social theory, and the inner-city housing market. You can find his works in the New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and the Chicago Tribune.

The January Series is a FREE 15-day award-winning lecture series that takes place each year at Calvin University.  The series aims to cultivate deep thought and conversations about important issues of the day, to inspire cultural renewal and make us better global citizens in God's world. We are thankful to share this special gift with our local, regional, and global community, thanks to our underwriters.