Matthew Schneider

Matthew Jerome Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a Collaborating Professor with the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, and the Co-director of the Sustainability, Equity, and Action Laboratory. His work is situated in the areas of race and racism, environmental sociology, urban sociology, and community and civic engagement. A simple but central narrative in his academic work is that justice, antiracism, and even community service are easier said than done. His current book project, Serving the Street, for example, explores how homeless service volunteers in St. Louis, Missouri both undermine and reproduce problems related to homelessness. Similarly, in an interview study of international missionaries and volunteers in Honduras, he explored how ideas about race, national origin, and class work to create a network of exclusionary spaces reserved for privileged travelers.

Schneider also conducts research on environmental politics. He has used survey data to better understand public opinion about hydraulic fracturing, and more recently, has taken an interest in a growing U.S. wind industry. With two offshore wind projects in the early stages of development near Kitty Hawk and Wilmington, he is currently monitoring policy decisions and public opinion about alternative energy in North Carolina.

Education

Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S. in Sociology and History, Illinois College