Other Research

Selected Publications:

• Alexandra Brewer, Melissa Osborne, Anna Mueller, Arjun Dayal, Daniel O’Conner, and Vineet Arora. 2020. “Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt? Gender, Role Expectations, and Assessment in Physician Education.” American Sociological Review. 85(2):247-270.

• Abrutyn Seth, Mueller Anna, Osborne Melissa. 2020. “Rekeying Cultural Scripts for Youth Suicide: How Social Networks Facilitate Suicide Diffusion and Suicide Clusters Following Exposure to Suicide.”  Society and Mental Health. 10(2):112-135.

• Melissa Osborne. 2018. “Who Gets ‘Housing First’?: Eligibility Determination in an Era of Housing First Homelessness.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 48(3):402-428.

• Anna Mueller, Seth Abrutyn, and Melissa Osborne. 2017. “Durkheim’s “Suicide” in the Zombie Apocalypse.” Contexts. 16(2):44-49.

• Anna Mueller, Tania Jenkins, Melissa Osborne, Arjun Dayal, Daniel O’Conner, and Vineet Arora. 2017. “Gender Differences in Attending Physicians' Feedback for Residents in an Emergency Medical Residency Program: A Qualitative Analysis.” Journal of Graduate Medical Education. 9(5): 577-585.

• Forrest Stuart, Amada Armenta, and Melissa Osborne. 2015. “Legal Control of Marginal Groups.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 11:235-54.

Projects in Progress

• I have completed a comparative follow-up study to Polished that considers the impact of social mobility on first-generation students at a regional comprehensive college in the Pacific northwest. This project includes focus groups and interviews with 85 first-generation students at various stages in their college careers. The findings from this project align with the major arguments in Polished and provide a window into how the burdens of social mobility manifest across institutional contexts. The first finding from this comparative analysis is that the impacts of social mobility are similar for students at both elite colleges and regional state universities. The second, and perhaps most interesting finding, is that it is not necessarily the same segment of the first-generation population that is having these experiences across the different institutional types. The third primary finding pertains to differences in elite vs. public state university’s ability to support these students’ other needs through programming, resources, and financial support. These findings provide an important window into the shared experiences of low-income and first-generation students across elite and regional state university contexts, demonstrate the role that institutional impact and resources can have on student experiences, and highlight the value of public/private cross-comparative research in the sociology of higher education.

• I am working on a project that draws on survey responses of 780 alumni of a comprehensive scholarship organization that provides opportunities to high-achieving college students with financial need to examine what happens when students leave the contexts of college and lose intensive support from scholarship organizations. Findings highlight that although intensive mentoring, one-on-one advising, and robust resources aid students in their academic success and wellbeing during college, the effects of these interventions do not necessarily extend into individuals’ lives post-graduation. Although much of the capital that students build in college becomes imbued within them, it is not necessarily transferrable to the next stages of life that require knowledge and skills around navigating careers, finance, social interactions, and new communities. Instead of relying on their established organizationally based support networks and resources, recent graduates must navigate many of these confusing expectations and difficult challenges alone while also dealing with the feelings of isolation and disconnectedness this process can produce. The effects of this drop off during the transition out of scholarship support can be a particularly difficult and complicated time for first-generation students who may rely almost solely on their scholarship organization for guidance and critical forms of economic, cultural, and social capital. These findings provide an important window into the experiences and challenges of students as they graduate, move into their careers, and navigate lives independent of scholarship support. A consideration of the challenges and barriers reflected in these respondents’ experiences and perceptions can provide the data needed for rethinking the ways that scholarship organizations and universities transition students out of their resources and to better understand how and whether programming, resources, and support during college extend into students’ toolkits post-graduation.