Sasha Abramsky

Position Title

Continuing Lecturer

350 Voorhies

Office Hours

M 3:00-5:00, T 3:00-5:00

Research Areas:

I specialize in political reporting and social justice journalism, with an emphasis on reporting on poverty, immigration, the criminal justice system. My book The American Way of Poverty was listed as one of the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of the Year, establishing me as a national expert on poverty and on ways of giving voice to those living in poverty. I also write extensively on both documented and undocumented immigration. I am a political correspondent and columnist for the Nation, and am now their west coast correspondent; I have a long track-reoord of writing both about national and also state politics.

Teaching Areas:

I teach UWP 101, 104c and 104j.

Biography:

Sasha Abramsky has taught in UWP for 18 years. A freelance journalist, his work has been published in the Nation -- where he is currently the West Coast correspondent and a weekly columnist -- New Yorker online, the Atlantic, the American Prospect, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Salon, Slate, the London Guardian, the Observer, the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Magazine and many other publications. He is the author of nine books, including The American Way of Poverty, listed by the New York Times as among the 100 Notable Books of 2013, the recently published family memoir The House of Twenty Thousand Books, and the biography Little Wonder: the Extraordinary Story of Lottie Dod, the World's First Female Sports Superstar, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize in 2021..

Education:

BA in politics, philosophy and economics from Balliol College, Oxford (1993).

MS in journalism, from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism (1994)

Awards:

I have received two fellowships from the Open Society Foundations, for my work on covering criminal justice and poverty issues. I have also won the National Council on Crime and Delinquency PASS media award twice. My latest book was one of six books (out of more than 180 nominated) to be shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. I have also won several media awards for my reporting on California for Capital & Main.

Publications:

I am the author of nine books: Hard Time Blues, Conned, American Furies, Breadline USA, Inside Obama's Brain, The American Way of Poverty, The House of Twenty Thousand Books, Jumping At Shadows, and Little Wonder.

Over the past nearly 30 years, I have also written several hundred magazine articles, essays, editorials, and other features.

Research Interests & Expertise

I specialize in political reporting and social justice journalism, with an emphasis on reporting on poverty, immigration, the criminal justice system.
My book The American Way of Poverty was listed as one of the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of the Year, establishing me as a national expert on poverty and on ways of giving voice to those living in poverty. I also write extensively on both documented
I am a political correspondent and columnist for the Nation, and am now their west coast correspondent; I have a long track-reoord of writing both about national and also state politics.