Kerry Ard

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

My research explores how social processes create and sustain environmental inequalities by race and class and how these unequal exposures are linked to health disparities. I use sociological concepts to understand the issues of social inequality and the environment. My work covers the arc of environmental inequality from an investigation into its political causes to its ultimate consequences of social disparities in health outcomes. At the foundation of my work is a perspective that scholars need to bring the insights from the field of sociology to bear on the causes of environmental risk and resulting effects on health. Current research provides little doubt that pollution is unequally distributed by race and class. Future research in this field needs to work toward gaining insight into actionable social and political areas that are at the core of these inequalities. In all of my research my goal is to uncover the political leverage points that will address social inequalities. 

Featured Research

Young kids who breathe polluted air can fall behind in school, study finds, The Washington Post
Publication: Concentrated poverty, ambient air pollution, and child cognitive development