Position title: Assistant Professor, Sociology and Southern Studies, University of Mississippi
Ryan Parsons received his B.A. in international studies and Chinese at the University of Mississippi and then moved to the United Kingdom, where he studied for
an M.Phil. in development studies at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). He returned to Mississippi and worked with the McLean Institute on a range
of community development and community engagement projects. He enrolled in graduate school and received a Ph.D. in sociology and social policy from
Princeton University in 2022.
In his research, Parsons explores how questions of space and race intersect to structure mobility opportunities, especially in rural and depopulated communities.
His dissertation was a community study of Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta, where he spent three years working with a cohort of young people who
aspired to go to college. His teaching draws on these experiences as he helps students think critically about what it means to study a community, and in
particular a community they’ve chosen to call home.
