I am a sociologist of inequality whose work examines how racialized and spatial hierarchies are produced, maintained, and experienced across domains of everyday life. I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from Syracuse University and currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi.

At its core, my research agenda asks how inequality is simultaneously organized through material structures, such as segregation, policy regimes, and population dynamics, and through cultural processes that shape perception, evaluation, and belonging. I bring these dimensions together to analyze how inequality persists not only through exclusion, but through the managed incorporation of difference into social and economic life.

Empirically, my work spans several interconnected areas. In one line of research, I examine the spatial and organizational dynamics of restaurants to show how racialized geographies shape commercial survival and the distribution of opportunity. Extending this framework, my qualitative research with immigrant restaurateurs shows how economic actors actively negotiate identity and market expectations, producing a unique form of authenticity that aligns with dominant norms. These projects advance a broader argument about the structuring of "diversity” in which difference is made visible and consumable without disrupting underlying inequalities.

In parallel, I have contributed to research on digital discourse, migration, mortality and public policy. My work on vaccine hesitancy and the framing of Syrian immigration uses computational methods to trace how inequality is articulated and contested in large-scale public conversations. I have also co-authored research on U.S. state policy regimes and life expectancy, highlighting the demographic consequences of political and institutional variation. This strand of my work connects macro-level policy environments to population health and social stratification.

Methodologically, I integrate spatial analysis, computational text analysis, and qualitative approaches. I work with tools such as Python, STATA, ArcGIS, and ATLAS.ti to bridge demographic data, digital trace data, and in-depth interviews within a single analytical framework.

My research has appeared in journals including The Milbank Quarterly, Social Science Computer Review, European Politics and Society, PLOS ONE, and Sociology Compass. I am currently developing a book manuscript that synthesizes my work on race, space, and consumption into a broader account of how inequality structures the boundaries of cosmopolitan life in the United States.

I am a member of the American Sociological Association, Southern Sociological Society, Population Association of America, and European Sociological Association, and I serve as an editorial board member for the Journal of Language, Media and Society and act as an ad hoc reviewer for several publications, including BMC Public Health, Frontiers in Political Science, Information Technology and People, Turkish Studies, and Social Science Computer Review.

Contact: zeyd@koytak.com