Laura Lein, Ph.D.

Professor with dual appointment with the Department of Anthropology

School of Social Work:
Room 3.212D
Phone: (512) 471-9248
Fax: 471-6712
E-Mail: lein@mail.utexas.edu

Mailing Address:
University of Texas
School of Social Work
1 University Station D3500
Austin, TX 78712-0358

Professional Interests

Families in poverty, families on the Texas-Mexico border, social welfare policies and programs, child care policies and programs, gender, race and ethnicity.

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University
MA, Harvard University
BA, Swarthmore College

About

Visit Dr. Lein's Web Site

Laura Lein, Ph.D., is Professor in the School of Social Work and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a social anthropologist whose work has concentrated on the interface between families in poverty and the institutions that serve them. She received her doctorate in social anthropology from Harvard University in 1973. Her research on families in poverty has extended over two decades. She recently co-authored (with Ronald Angel and Jane Henrici) Poor Families in America's Health Care Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 2006). She is the author, with Kathryn Edin, of Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997). She is also continuing work on the experience of welfare reform among groups in Texas and on the experience of poverty among families living in the Monterrey/San Antonio corridor. She has undertaken work with local and advocacy organizations in Austin and in other Texas communities.

Dr. Lein teaches courses in the School of Social work, the Department of Anthroplogy, and the Plan II program on qualitative research methods, poverty and social welfare policy, and gender. She is active with the Women's and Gender Studies Program and is an affiliate of the Population Research Center. She is involved with the University's Bridging Disciplines program.

Dr. Lein grew up in the Chicago area and attended Swarthmore College outside of Philadelphia. She worked at Wellesley College's Center for Research on Women before coming to Austin. She is married and has three adult children.

Teaching

Office Hours:

Visit the School's Electronic Classroom for course list and syllabi.

Research Projects

Completed projects have the year of completion.

Katrina Research Collaborative