Michael Sacks was a Professor in the Department of Sociology.  He received a B.A. from Queens College, CUNY in 1969 and a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1974.  Specializing for many decades in the study of Soviet society, his books include Women’s Work in Soviet Russia: Continuity in the Midst of Change (Praeger 1976), Work and Equality in Soviet Society:  The Division of Labor by Age, Gender and Nationality (Praeger 1982) and a coedited volume entitled, Understanding Soviet Society (Allen & Unwin 1988). 

More recently  his research has shifted to the study of inequality within and between cities and suburbs of the United States.  This has led to a focus on the changes in the Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Areas, based on data from the censuses of 1980, 1990 and 2000. Professor Sacks retired from teaching in 2013.

Publications:

• Sacks, Michael P. “The Puerto Rican Effect on Hispanic Residential Segregation:  A Study of the Hartford and Springfield Metro Areas in National Perspective.”  Latino Studies, 9 (1), 2011, 87-105. Reprint forthcoming in Confronting Urban Legacy:  Rediscovering Hartford and New England’s Forgotten Cities, edited by Xiangming Chen and Nick Bacon.  Lexington Books.
• Sacks, Michael P. Women's Work in Soviet Russia:  Continuity in the Midst of Change. New York:  Praeger, 1976.
• Sacks, Michael P. Work and Equality in Soviet Society:  The Division of Labor by Age, Gender and Nationality.  New York:  Praeger, 1982.
• Sacks, Michael P. and Jerry G. Pankhurst, co-edited. Understanding Soviet Society. Boston:  Allen & Unwin, 1988.
• Sacks, Michael P. "Roots of Diversity and Conflict:  Ethnic and Gender Differences in the Work Force of the Former Republics of Soviet Central Asia."  In Muslim Eurasia:  Conflicting Legacies, edited by Yaacov Ro'i, pp. 269-288.  London: Frank Cass, 1995.
• Sacks, Michael P. “Privilege and Prejudice: The Occupations of Jews in Russia in 1989.” Slavic Review, 57 (2), 1998: 247-266.
• Sacks, Michael P. “Indicators of the Changing Status of Women in Post-Soviet Russia.” Soviet and Post Soviet Review.  Volume 26 (3) 1999: 223-39.
• Sacks, Michael P., and Carol L. Clark.  “A View from Below: Industrial Re-structuring and Women’s Employment at Four Russian Enterprise.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 37 (4) 2004: 523-545.
• Sacks, Michael P. “Still Separate and Unequal: The Growing Minority Population in Hartford’s Suburbs.”  The Hartford Courant, November 28, 2004, p.  C4.

Recent Presentations:

• Sacks, Michael P. “The Shifting Ethnic Residential Divide in the Hartford Metropolitan Area: Baby Boomers and Suburbanizing Hispanics”.  Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, California, August 14-17, 2004.
• Sacks, Michael P. “Suburban Sprawl, Urban Decline and Racial/Ethnic Segregation:  Shifting Dimensions of Inequality in a U.S. Metro Area.”  Presented at a poster session of the 25th International Population Conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Tours, France, July 18-23, 2005.

• Grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Project: "Social and Individual Adaptations to Transition:  Youth in Contemporary Russia", 1975-1976
• Grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. Project: "The Influence of Age, Sex and Nationality on Labor Force Composition 1939-1970", 1977
• Recipient of an institutional faculty improvement grant to the City University of New York from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, 1979-1981
• Grant from the Research Foundation of the City University of New York.  Project: "Sources of Change in Occupational Sex Differences: The Soviet Labor Force in 1926", 1980-1981
• Grants from the Trinity College Faculty Research Committee for a variety of studies of Soviet and Post-Soviet Society, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996-97, 1998-2001
• Recipient of Trinity College Faculty Research Leave and One-Year Expense Grant. Project: “Changing Economy and Population in An ‘Inelastic’ City and Its Suburbs: Patterns of Inequality in the Hartford Region, 1980-2000”, 2002-2003