research in progress & working papers
Alemu, Matthew. “What it Means to be Absent: Exploring the Nature of Father Absence Through its Variation”. In preparation for Sociology journal.
Alemu, Matthew; Ponce Adriana. “Who’s Best for the Child? Child Custody and Parent Interaction with Child Support Enforcement in Michigan”.
research EXPERIENCE
Graduate Student Research Assistant & Data Analyst. Alford A Young, Jr., Department of Sociology. Conducted respondent interviews for three concurrent research projects (started Winter 2019). Conducted program evaluation of gender-based violence interventions at multiple sites across various townships in South Africa (Summer 2017). Completed other key research tasks across multiple projects. 2015 to Present.
Graduate Student Research Assistant. Karin A. Martin (Chair), Department of Sociology. Assessed the Department of Sociology’s admission practices, including an evaluation of the usefulness of the Graduate Record Examination as a successful predictor of student success. Conducted a comparative analysis of the admission processes between our department and other leading institutions and Sociology Departments. 2018.
Graduate Student Research Assistant, Data Analyst. National Poverty Center, Department of Sociology. Coordinated with community organizations in metro Detroit to recruit respondents. Led field interviews with male participants and documented responses for further analysis (26 completed). 2013-2015.
research interests
My dissertation is guided by two primary research objectives. First, my work addresses voids in the way we understand and define a father’s absence. Researchers and policymakers have employed a narrow definition of absence that hinges on the residential status of fathers or temporal accounts of the contact between fathers and their children. These emphases have resulted in an under exploration of interpretations of the meaningfulness of absence by the children who experience this condition. They also foster the assumption that children with non-resident fathers experience such absence in similar ways.
My dissertation provides a detailed typology of absence and illustrates how each type may be perceived by children. It also documents the unique and distinctive consequences of each type. Empirically, I focus on how growing up with an absent father influences how young black men form ideologies related to fatherhood, masculinity and romantic relationships. I do so by drawing from serial interviews with 35 young low-income black men in Southeast Michigan who grew up with some form of an absent father. Ultimately, my dissertation examines voids in the cultural study of marginalized black men. While prior research had acknowledged the prevalence in this group of growing up with an absent father, its focus has been limited to studying how the structural conditions of poverty shape the minds and lives of low-income black men and less do so on the complexities inherent in the perceived impact of that experience.
