Rate My Professor Irma Reci

Professor Irma Reci is Professor in Social Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She earned her Doctorate in Quantitative Social Research Methodology from VU University Amsterdam in 2008, an MSc in Business Administration in 2002, and a BA in Finance in 2000 from the same university. Her academic career at the University of Melbourne began in 2013 as Senior Lecturer, followed by Head of the Discipline of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Theory from 2017 to 2020, Associate Professor from 2018 to 2021, and Professor of Labour Sociology since 2022. She has also held the position of Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic Research since 2016. Prior to this, she was Assistant Professor of Social Research Methodology at VU University Amsterdam from 2007 to 2013.

Reci's research focuses on labor market dynamics, including the long-term effects of unemployment, underemployment, non-standard employment, and parental joblessness on wages, fertility intentions, health outcomes, and intergenerational mobility, with attention to gender and life-course variations. Notable publications include 'Casual Employment and Long-Term Wage Outcomes' in Human Relations (2017), 'The employment consequences of growing up in a dual-parent jobless household: A comparison of Australia and the United States' in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (2020), 'Baby Bump or Baby Slump? COVID-19, Lockdowns, and their Effects on Births in Australia' in Social Science & Medicine - Population Health (2024), and 'Intergenerationally Penalized? The Long-Term Wage Consequences of Parental Joblessness' in Social Science Research (2022). She has secured competitive grants such as the Australian Research Council Discovery Project 'The Intergenerational Transmission of Joblessness' (AUD 876,096; 2016-2021) and Special Research Initiative 'Casual Fertility Consequences: The Role of Non-Standard Employment' (AUD 825,223; 2020). Awards include the VU Junior Societal Impact Award (2009), Early Career Researcher Grant (2015), Certificate for Research Excellence (2018), and visiting fellowships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010-2012), Nuffield College, Oxford (2017), Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany (2022), and Centre for Politics of Inequality, Israel (2023). Reci serves as Editor of Social Science Research since 2024 and was Deputy Editor of Gender & Society (2019-2023).