Hilary Davidson

Hilary Davidson is a Sociology PhD Candidate and fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her dissertation, Searching for the Good Life in Hard Times: How Aspirations Anchor Transitions, draws on more than 300 interviews to examine what Americans coming of age in the Great Recession aspire to achieve with their lives and whether cultural narratives of the good life plot out the quests of finding work and love. Davidson's research interests include social class and inequality, culture and cognition, and well-being. She is the co-author of The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (Oxford University Press, 2011).