Calarco is a sociologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024). Her award-winning research examines the intersections of policy, privilege, and power, with a focus on education and family life.
Her previous books include Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research (with Mario Small; University of California Press, 2022), Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School (Oxford University Press, 2018), and A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Calarco has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CNN. She also writes the Hidden Curriculum newsletter and is a mom of two young kids.