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Sociology

Rachel Donnelly

Assistant Professor of Sociology
Dean's Faculty Fellow in Sociology

Rachel Donnelly is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on social determinants of health across the life course, with an emphasis on stress, work, and family relationships. Moreover, her research considers how disparate experiences based on gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity (and intersections therein) shape mental and physical health outcomes. In recent research supported by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Donnelly examines how stressors and state-level policies jointly shape inequities in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. In another line of research supported by the National Science Foundation, Dr. Donnelly considers how exposure to precarious work erodes the health of adults across the life course. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, and Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Dr. Donnelly received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Selected Publications

Donnelly, Rachel. Forthcoming. “Job Insecurity as a Predictor of Gray Divorce: A Gendered           Dyadic Analysis.” Social Forces.

Donnelly, Rachel, Michael A. Garcia, Hyungmin Cha, Robert A. Hummer, Debra Umberson. 2023. “Exposure to Family Member Deaths Across the Life Course for Hispanic Individuals.” Demography 60(2):539-562.

Donnelly, Rachel. 2022. “Precarious Work in Midlife: Long-term Implications for the Health and Mortality of Women and Men.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 63(1): 142-158.          

Donnelly, Rachel and Mateo P. Farina. 2021. “How Do State Policies Shape Experiences of Household Income Shocks and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic?” Social Science & Medicine 269:113557.