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WashU Sociology's Fall 2026 Colloquium Series: Erin Cech

The WashU Sociology Colloquium Series invites visiting scholars to share their work, while contributing to the general intellectual culture of the WashU Sociology Department.

Join the WashU Department of Sociology for the third installment of our Fall Colloquium Series, featuring Prof. Erin Cech.

Presentation: Title TBA

Erin A. Cech is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Associate Professor by courtesy in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Cech's research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction--specifically, how inequality is reproduced through processes that are not overtly discriminatory or coercive, but rather those that are built into seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices. She investigates this puzzle through three avenues of research. First, she uses quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine inequality in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions--specifically, the recruitment and retention of women, LGBTQ, and racially minoritized students and practitioners and the role of professional cultures in this inequality. Second, Cech examines how cultural definitions of “good work” and “good workers” can anchor inequality in the workforce. For example, she examines the role of the “passion principle” in the reproduction of occupational inequalities: how seemingly voluntary and self-expressive career decisions help reproduce processes like occupational sex segregation. Finally, she studies how cultural understandings of the extent and origin of inequality help to uphold unequal social structures. 

Cech’s research is funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation. Her research has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Time, The Guardian, Forbes, Chronicle of Higher Education and the news sections of Science and Nature. She has written op-eds in The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and The Conversation. 

Cech's first book The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfilment at Work Fosters Inequality (University of California Press) was published November 2021 and was named one of Financial Times' Best Business Books of 2021. Her second book, Misconceiving Merit: Paradoxes of Excellence and Devotion in Academic Science and Engineering (University of Chicago Press), written with Mary Blair-Loy, was published June 2022.

More about our guest: https://www.erinacech.com/ 

Colloquia are open to a broader WashU audience; however, space is limited. 
Students who are interested in more advanced sociological inquiry are strongly encouraged to attend.