Jennifer Lundquist
Professor of Sociology / Senior Associate Dean of Research & Faculty Development University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Amherst MA
Sociologist of academic freedom, higher education, race and gender inequality, online dating, intimacy, families, and military life.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Expertise
Biography
Lundquist is also a national commentator on academic freedom and the political pressures reshaping American higher education. She writes and speaks about attacks on scholars, faculty governance, institutional autonomy, and the role of colleges and universities in democratic life. She is co-founder of Stand Together for Higher Ed, a national faculty- and staff-led organization that helps higher education communities respond collectively to defend academic freedom and shared governance.
Lundquist is lead author of Demography: The Study of Human Population and co-author of The Dating Divide: Race and Intimacy in the Era of Online Dating. Her scholarship has appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Annual Review of Sociology. Her research and public commentary have been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Time, Science, NPR, Forbes, and Inside Higher Ed. She is an experienced keynote speaker, panelist, podcast guest, and media commentator.
Social Media
Video
Education
University of Pennsylvania
Joint Ph.D.
Sociology & Demography
University of Pennsylvania
A.M.
Demography
Washington and Lee University
B.A.
Anthropology/Archaeology and Spanish
Select Recent Media Coverage
A Grass-Roots Faculty Effort To Advance Higher Education Takes Shape
Forbes online
2025-09-04
STHE also wants to strengthen faculty and staff’s outreach to local, state and federal legislators, urging them to protect higher education from political intrusions, fund it adequately, and defend the rights of students, faculty, staff, and researchers. As [Jennifer] Lundquist told me,”We are a big tent movement. This isn’t an Ivy League fight or a lefty movement; the frontline is all of us–our community colleges and public universities, where staff and faculty across red, blue, and purple states have realized how high the stakes are.”
UMass Amherst preparing for ‘triple hit’ in wake of Trump proposals and policies
Boston Globe online
2025-06-19
Given the scale of the federal government’s cuts, said Jennifer Lundquist, professor of sociology and a cofounder of Stand Together for Higher Ed, “it is no surprise that UMass must begin preparing for various budget scenarios.”
The Fantasy of a Nonprofit Dating App
The Atlantic online
2025-02-20
Jennifer Lundquist comments in a story exploring the feasibility of a nonprofit dating app. She notes that a government-sponsored dating app would raise many issues, such as how information on people’s romantic and sexual preferences might be used by the government.
Opinion: FTX whistleblower was unusual. Most witnesses are too afraid to speak up.
MarketWatch online
2023-09-23
Research by Jennifer Lindquist is cited in an opinion piece about risks faced by corporate whistleblowers. Berman and Lundquist found that more whistleblowers are women and that women face higher rates of reprisal than male whistleblowers.
Why aren't college-educated Black women meeting their match?
Insider online
2023-02-05
"We have an economic system that creates real inequality, in particular for Black men. And so you have a situation known as the marriage squeeze, where Black women tend to be more highly educated than Black men because of the different ways in which a racist society impacts men versus women," said Jennifer Lundquist, professor of Sociology and Senior Associate Dean of Research & Faculty Development at the University of Massachusetts, and co-author of "The Dating Divide."
Beyond the Scenes from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: How Sexual Racism Affects Online Dating
Comedy Central online
2022-05-31
In a podcast, Jennifer Lundquist discusses digital sexual racism with “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” correspondent Ronny Chieng and comedian Roy Wood Jr.
People are using Tinder to sell insurance policies and looking for love on LinkedIn, in an online world where the boundaries are increasingly blurred
Insider online
2022-04-21
Jennifer Lundquist s quoted in a story about dating apps increasingly being used for purposes other than those intended, such as using LinkedIn to find a date or Tinder to sell insurance.
When Women Blow the Whistle
Society of Women Engineers online
2022-01-11
This idea that women are more focused on the public good than men is common and not without some data supporting it. The United Nations named the global empowerment of women a critical step in reducing corruption and working toward greater equality. Dr. Berman and Dr. Lundquist note several studies that found a greater share of women in elected office results in lower levels of government corruption. Other studies have found that when it comes to business transactions, women are more ethical than men. This may be due to how women are socialized, they note.
Why your swipes on Hinge and OKCupid might be racist
New York Post print
2021-02-19
Jennifer Lundquist is interviewed for an article about “The Dating Divide,” the new book she co-authored, which examines racism in the world of online dating.
Select Publications
Interracial Unions and Racial Assortative Mating in an Age of Growing Diversity, Shifting Intimate Relationships, and Emerging Technologies
Annual Review of SociologyJennifer Lundquist, Ken-Hou Lin and Celeste Curington
2024-05-15
While racial assortative mating and interracial unions have been a central interest in the study of race relations and family demography since the early twentieth century, there have been marked changes in the social contexts in which these processes have taken place in recent decades. This review article examines three important shifts: (a) the rise of population diversity and its impact on traditional views of racial integration, (b) the changing institution of marriage in American life, and (c) the increasing centrality of technology.
Warriors Wanted: The Performance of Immigrants in the US Army
International Migration ReviewEiko Strader, Jennifer Lundquist and Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas
2020-08-28
The US Army offers English-language instruction and socio-cultural training to foreign-born personnel, and current US law allows some immigrants to apply for expedited citizenship through military service. The US Army, thus, offers a compelling context in which to explore how such institutional factors might facilitate immigrant incorporation, yet we know little about the experience of foreign-born soldiers because most surveys exclude active-duty personnel. Using novel data obtained from the US Department of Defense that are not available to the public, this research note describes the integrative nature of the US Army, and contrasts foreign-born and native-born soldiers in relation to what we know about selectivity and immigrant job outcomes elsewhere.
Tipping the Multiracial Color‑Line: Racialized Preferences of Multiracial Online Daters
Race and Social ProblemsCeleste Vaughan Curington, Jennifer Hickes Lundquist and Ken‑Hou Lin
2020-06-24
Building on previous work on US multiraciality, we analyze the messaging patterns of Asian-white, Hispanic-white, and black-white multiracial heterosexual users on one of the largest mainstream dating websites in the USA.
Love Me Tinder, Love Me Sweet
ContextsJennifer Hickes Lundquist and Celeste Vaughan Curington
2019-11-15
Are “hook up” apps leading to a new kind of dating culture on college campuses? Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are have a different impact on the lives of college students versus older daters. Many students are using these apps to circumvent the romantic gatekeeping that campus party culture has long dominated.
Does a Criminal Past Predict Worker Performance? Evidence from One of America's Largest Employers
Social ForcesJennifer Lundquist, Elko Strader and Devah Prager
2018-01-30
This paper is one of the first systematic assessments of ex-felons’ workplace performance. Using FOIA-requested data from the Department of Defense, we follow 1.3 million ex-offender and non-offender enlistees in the US military from 2002 to 2009. Those with a felony background show no difference in attrition rates due to poor performance compared to those without criminal records
