Sociology Department

Samantha Friedman

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Expertise: Urban Sociology

Contact Info:

• Samfriedman@albany.edu
• Office: 348 Arts & Sciences Building
• Phone: (518) 442-5458
• Mailing Address:
• 1400 Washington Ave.
  Arts & Sciences 351
  University at Albany
  Albany, NY 12222

CV: Curriculum Vitae

Education

• 1997 Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
• 1994 M.A., Sociology and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
• 1992 B.A., Sociology and Statistics, State University of New York Buffalo

Recent Research Projects

• An Estimate of Housing Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples -- a first-ever national U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) study examining housing discrimination against same-sex couples in the private rental market. The study, led by Friedman and conducted by M. Davis and Company (MDAC), measures the treatment same-sex couples receive compared to otherwise similar heterosexual couples from rental agents when inquiring about rental units advertised online. This is a large-scale, paired-testing study to assess housing discrimination against same-sex couples in metropolitan rental markets via advertisements on the Internet. The research is based on 6,833 e-mail correspondence tests conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the United States from June through October 2011. The study finds that same-sex couples experience less favorable treatment than heterosexual couples in the online rental housing market. The primary form of adverse treatment is that same-sex couples receive significantly fewer responses to e-mail inquiries about advertised units than heterosexual couples. Study results in jurisdictions with state-level protections against housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation unexpectedly show slightly more adverse treatment of same-sex couples than results in jurisdictions without such protections. This study provides an important initial observation of discrimination based on sexual orientation at the threshold stage of the rental transaction and is a point of departure for future research on housing discrimination against same-sex couples. (June, 2013) http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/fairhsg/discrim_samesex.html

Research Interests

• Urban Sociology
• Immigration
• Housing

Courses Taught

• SOC 115 - Introduction to Sociology
• SOC 220 - Research Methods
• SOC 509 - Research Methods
• SOC 627 - Urbanization