Gillian Slee, *24
Gillian Slee is the Gerhard Casper Fellow in Rule of Law at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University. Her work focuses on understanding and ameliorating inequality in American state processes. To this end, she has studied institutions with far-reaching consequences: public defense, child protective services, and parole. With each of her projects, Gillian aims to humanize key state processes and, in so doing, demonstrate how institutions’ relational dynamics shape inequality. She uses a range of methods—ethnography, in-depth interviews, and statistics—and has published her work in Theory and Society, Social Service Review, Politics & Society, and Journal of Marriage and Family.
Gillian completed her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy at Princeton University in 2024. She earned her M.Phil. in Criminology at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Herchel Smith Harvard Scholar. Gillian graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Social Studies and a minor in Psychology. Her research has been recognized with Centennial, Charlotte Elizabeth Procter, Marion J. Levy, Jr., and P.E.O. Scholar fellowships.
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy, Princeton University, 2024
M.A. in Sociology, Princeton University, 2020
M.Phil. in Criminology, University of Cambridge, 2017
A.B. in Social Studies, Harvard College, 2016
Selected Publications
Gilson, Madeleine, Gillian Slee, and Matthew Desmond. 2024. “Calling on Kin: Poverty, the Family Safety Net, and Child Welfare Policy.” Journal of Marriage and Family.
Slee, Gillian. 2023. “Of the State, against the State: Public Defenders, Street-Level Bureaucracy, and Discretion in Criminal Court.” Social Service Review 97(4):675–718.
Slee, Gillian, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Resignation without Relief: Democratic Governance and the Relinquishing of Parental Rights.” Theory and Society 52(4):583–623.
Slee, Gillian, and Matthew Desmond. 2021. “Eviction and Voter Turnout: The Political Consequences of Housing Instability.” Politics & Society 51(1):3–29.