Assistant Professor, Sociology
Director of Educational Pathways and Faculty Development, Honors College
Contact Information
Biography
Blake R. Silver is Director of Educational Pathways & Faculty Development in the Honors College and Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He also serves as the Director of the Education & Health Research Hub in the Center for Social Science Research.
Dr. Silver received a PhD in sociology from the ĢAV of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Fellow. His research focuses on culture, social stratification, and higher education, addressing questions about the role of colleges and universities in contesting and reproducing inequality.
His current projects examine college students' educational pathways, the senior-year transitions of second-generation immigrant students, and campus art and architecture. His research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, ACPA-College Student Educators International, the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and the NASPA Foundation.
Dr. Silver's first book, (ĢAV of Chicago Press), explores how inequalities are reproduced as students pursue social inclusion on campus.
His forthcoming co-edited volume with Graziella Pagliarulo McCarron, (Cambridge ĢAV Press), will be published in spring 2024.
Dr. Silver's second book, (ĢAV of Chicago Press), is forthcoming in summer 2024. This book argues that students at public colleges and universities today confront rampant insecurity, amplified by common policies and practices employed by those institutions. Students encounter and manage this insecurity in very different ways, intensifying inequality at the intersections of socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other sociodemographic dimensions.
Selected Publications (Recent Articles and Book Chapters)
Silver, Blake R. 2024. “.ŨįSocial Currents, 11(1), 61-79.
Farago, Fanni, and Blake R. Silver. 2023. “.” In Teniell Trolian and Eugene Parker, Eds. Fostering Sustained Student-Faculty Engagement in Undergraduate Education, p. 128-145. New York: Routledge.
Silver, Blake R. 2023. “.ŨįJournal of First-generation Student Success, 3(2), 106-123.
Silver, Blake R., and Lily Krietzberg. 2023. “.ŨįSociological Focus, 56(1), 1-19.
Silver, Blake R., Freddy Lopez, Fanni Farago, and Tharuna Kalaivanan. 2022. “.ŨįQualitative Sociology, 45(1), 123-147.
Roksa, Josipa, Blake R. Silver, and Yapeng Wang. 2022. “.” In Nicholas Bowman, Ed. How College Students Succeed: Making Meaning Across Disciplinary Perspectives, p. 179-207. Stylus.
Kalaivanan, Tharuna, Lily Krietzberg, Blake R. Silver, and Bianca Kwan. 2022. “.ŨįJournal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 15(1), 21-40.
Roksa, Josipa, and Blake R. Silver. 2021. “.” In Kimberley Kinsley and Robert Rycroft, Eds. Inequality in America: Causes and Consequences, p. 95-106. Greenwood, ABC-CLIO.
Silver, Blake R., Lily Krietzberg, and Tharuna Kalaivanan. 2021. “.ŨįJournal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 33(2), 9-27.
Silver, Blake R., Freddy Lopez, Tharuna Kalaivanan, and Lily Krietzberg. 2021. “.ŨįJournal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 58(4), 388-400.
Silver, Blake R. 2020. “.ŨįSociological Forum, 35(4), 1290-1314.
Silver, Blake R. 2020. “.ŨįJournal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 13(3), 233-250.
Henderson, Lora, Blake R. Silver, Leslie Booren, Sara Rimm-Kaufman, and James Wyckoff. 2020. “.ŨįJournal of College Student Development, 61(5) 663-666.
Silver, Blake R., Tharuna Kalaivanan, Lily Krietzberg, and Jordan Hawkins. 2020. “.ŨįJournal of College Student Development, 61(5) 558-573.
Roksa, Josipa, Blake R. Silver, Denise Deutschlander, and Sarah Whitley. 2020. “.ŨįSociological Forum, 35(3) 565-586.
Silver, Blake R. 2020. “.ŨįJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 49(2): 147-175.
Silver, Blake R. 2020. “.ŨįSociological Focus, 53(2): 190-206.
Roksa, Josipa, and Blake R. Silver. 2019. “.ŨįReview of Higher Education, 42(3): 1051-1071.
Arum, Richard, Josipa Roksa, Jacqueline Cruz, and Blake R. Silver. 2018. "." In Barbara Schneider (Ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Education in the 21st Century, pp. 385-403. Springer.
Silver, Blake R. and Josipa Roksa. 2017. "." Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 54(3): 248-260.
Grants and Fellowships
ACPA Foundation Research Grant. “Layered Transitions: First-Generation College Seniors from Immigrant Families.” PI: Blake Silver; Key Personnel: Tharuna Kalaivanan, Fanni Farago, and Kellie Wilkerson (09/2022-08/2023).
American Sociological Association. Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline Grant. “Labor Market Precarity and Higher Education.” PI: Blake Silver (11/2020-03/2022).
National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, Paul P. Fidler Research Grant. "Transitioning OUT: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students’ Experiences in the Senior Year." PI: Blake Silver (10/2019-10/2021).
NASPA Region III, Research Grant. "Gender, First-Generation American Students, and the Senior-Year Transition." PI: Blake Silver (08/2018-12/2019).
The NASPA Foundation, Channing Briggs Small Research Grant. “Navigating the Senior Year Transition: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of First-Generation American Students.” PI: Blake Silver (10/2015-10/2016).
Courses Taught
The Individual and Society
Culture and Social Inequality
Higher Education and Society
Research Methods
Social Inequality and the Self
The Transition to Adulthood
Ethnography, Place, and Community
Education in Contemporary Society
Education
PhD, Sociology, ĢAV of Virginia
MA, Sociology, ĢAV of Virginia
MA, Higher Education, George Washington ĢAV
BA, English, George Mason ĢAV