Professor Connor “Noor” Strobel is a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows and a Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. A sociologist by training, his research is generally interested in contested identities — how our identities become sources of personal and group conflict, can compound existing health and social inequalities, and how they are resolved. His research expertise and advocacy for students have been covered by many national media outlets, and he has served as an advisor to policymakers.
Professor Strobel’s first co-authored book, The Politics of “Perverts”: The Political Attitudes and Actions of Non-traditional Sexual Minorities, was recently published by NYU Press. It is a pioneering work on the social and political lives of what are sometimes characterized as non-traditional sexual minority groups. In addition to covering pathbreaking topics, the book proposes novel approaches to measuring marginalized groups' policy preferences and political behavior.
He is an internationally recognized expert on the relationship between social media and eating disorders. Professor Strobel wrote some of the first articles to consider how gender shapes both women and men recovering from eating disorders and how free speech policies shape health outcomes. He has also written on identity in social and political movements in South Asia and Latin America. Throughout his projects, Professor Strobel regularly creates research opportunities for students, including serving as a mentor through the Quad Scholars program.
Professor Strobel is currently working on a comparative study of how families with neurodivergent K-12 students navigate educational, legal, medical, and other institutions amidst rapidly changing legal regimes, forms of expertise, and cultural changes about neurodivergence.
His work has been published or is forthcoming in venues such as Gender Issues, Sociology Compass, Oxford University Press, Routledge, NYU Press, SAGE, and Palgrave-MacMillan. Professor Strobel’s research, teaching, and support of students has been covered by media outlets such as The New York Times, LA Times, PBS Newshour, San Francisco Chronicle, Faculti, and the Eating Disorder Association of Ireland.