Hello! My name is Clifford Ross and I am a doctoral candidate in the medical sociology program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In a general sense, my research agenda focuses on ways in which large structural institutions influence the general health and well-being of individuals. Because interactions with larger economic structures are complex and multifaceted, my work emphasizes ways in which an individual’s social and physical environment overlap to help shape this relationship. Currently, for my dissertation, I am investigating the relationship between working histories and midlife health and how specific social factors (race, gender, motherhood, and union membership) may work to influence this relationship.
Additionally, with collaborators at UAB, I am currently working on several other projects not related to my dissertation work. These projects focus on:
The relationship between sustained union membership and midlife earnings.
The impact of unintended childbearing and midlife debt.
Social factors influencing the effectiveness of modern cystic fibrosis therapies.
Having grown up in a small fringe town in Idaho, I had never heard of sociology before taking a university-mandated social science course. Thinking about my own lived experiences within a larger social context for the first time led to a passion for sociological thought. I graduated with a BS in Sociology from Boise State University in 2018 and then earned an MA in Sociology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2022. I plan on graduating with my PhD in the summer of 2024.