Rate My Professor Amie Bostic

Amie Bostic is an associate professor of sociology and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). She also serves as Faculty Fellow for Graduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts. Prior to joining UTRGV in the fall of 2016 as a tenure-track assistant professor, Bostic was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Duke University in 2016, where her dissertation examined "Inequality, the Welfare State, and Demographic Change."

In the field of social science, Bostic's research focuses on poverty, social policy, and public opinion. Her work investigates the roles of family structure, economic conditions, immigration, and welfare policies in shaping poverty rates and public support for social spending, particularly among at-risk groups like children of single mothers. Topics include childcare providers and systems, economic inequality, public assistance such as TANF, and work-family balance. Bostic has contributed significantly through publications in leading journals. Notable works include "Paradoxes of Social Policy: Welfare Transfers, Relative Poverty, and Redistribution Preferences" (American Sociological Review, 2015, with David Brady); "Observing Many Researchers Using the Same Data and Hypothesis Reveals a Hidden Universe of Uncertainty" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022); "Measuring Ethnic Diversity" (Annual Review of Sociology, 2022, with Liza G. Steele, Scott M. Lynch, and Lamis Abdelaaty); "Social Spending, Poverty, and Immigration: A Systematic Analysis of Welfare State Effectiveness and Nativity in 24 Upper- and Middle-Income Democracies" (2023, with Allen Hyde); "Family, Work, Economy, or Social Policy: Examining Poverty among Children of Single Mothers in Affluent Democracies between 1985-2016" (2023); and "Immigration and Public Support for Social Policy: Accounting for the Gender Composition of Immigrant Populations" (2025, with Achim Edelmann and Friedolin Merhout). These publications highlight her impact on debates surrounding welfare state dynamics, methodological rigor in social sciences, and policy implications for inequality.