INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH

Remembering Inequality Scholar Christopher 'Sandy' Jencks (1936-2025)

Sociologist pointed to poverty’s structural factors—and solutions

Jencks delivers the keynote lecture at IPR’s 40^th-anniversary conference in 2009.

Christopher “Sandy” Jencks, former John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and fellow of the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research (CUAPR)—now the Institute for Policy Research (IPR)—died on Feb. 8 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 88. 

Jencks retired in 2016 as the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University. Over his 55-year career, Jencks explored the many forms inequality takes in America.  

“He had the courage to tackle some of the biggest social policy questions of his time—homelessness, the Black-White test score gap, and the urban underclass—and bring data to bear not just on understanding them but on suggesting evidence-based solutions,” said Fay Lomax Cook, former IPR director and professor and fellow emerita. 

Jencks entered the policy world first as a journalist and think tank fellow before landing in academia. He joined Northwestern in 1979 and in the years that followed worked with Cook and others to study the effects of President Ronald Reagan’s social service cuts on low-income Chicagoans. Collaborating with other local universities, they found that economic hardship income inequality increased in Chicago during this time. 

The Institute hosted a national poverty conference in 1989, leading to the volume The Urban Underclass, co-edited by Jencks. The collection of essays presented evidence that challenged the popular misconception that poverty, crime, and social instability were rapidly overtaking cities.  

At IPR's 40th-anniversary conference in 2009, Jencks delivered the opening keynote, “Economic Inequality: How Much is Too Much?.” He highlighted the skyrocketing incomes of the richest 10% of Americans over the previous two decades and refuted the argument that reducing inequality brings down per capita income and worker efficiency. Jencks touched on effects of income inequality that often go overlooked, such as widening gaps in access to political power.  

Beyond his many scholarly achievements, Jencks was cherished for his contributions as a colleague and mentor. In 1990, Jencks and Rebecca Blank launched an interdisciplinary training program for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at Northwestern and the University of Chicago. A $7.5 million grant in 1996 from the Department of Health and Human Services turned this program into a national poverty center, the Northwestern/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. 

“Sandy fully lived the ideal of a public intellectual embedded in a network whose members offered each other support,” said Tom Cook, professor and IPR fellow emeritus. “Sandy was universally respected at Northwestern for his intellectual acumen, generosity of spirit, interdisciplinary openness, committing himself to the human side of institution-building and mentorship of doctoral students.” 

Jencks is survived by his wife Jane Mansbridge, a former fellow and associate director at the Institute, his brother Stephen, son Nathaniel, and grandson Wilder, and his many colleagues and friends. 

Published: February 18, 2025.