Shamus Rahman Khan

Shamus Rahman Khan is the Willard Thorp Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton University, where his work examines culture, inequality, gender, and elites. One of the world’s leading sociologists of institutions, Khan has transformed how scholars, educators, and the public understand the ways schools, universities, and other organizations reproduce inequality — and how they might be remade.

He is the author of more than 130 articles, books, and essays, including Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, an award-winning ethnography of elite education, and Sexual Citizens: Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus, co-authored with Jennifer S. Hirsch. Named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, Sexual Citizens grew out of SHIFT, the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation, a multi-year study of sexual health and sexual violence at Columbia University. The book has reshaped the national conversation about campus sexual assault by moving beyond narrow debates over individual consent and focusing instead on the institutional, spatial, and social conditions that make sexual violence more likely — and therefore preventable. This work has served as the foundation for institutions around the world transforming their approach to sexual violence.

Khan’s scholarship and public writing have appeared widely, including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time. He has served as editor of Public Culture, directed a Russell Sage Foundation working group on the political influence of economic elites, and received Columbia University’s Presidential Teaching Award as well as the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize for the best sociologist under 40. Across his research, teaching, and public engagement, Khan brings a deep commitment to understanding how institutions shape lives — and how they can be redesigned to foster equality, dignity, and human flourishing.