Academic Profile

Research Interests: Life Course, Criminology, Quantitative Methods, Experimental Methods.

Dave joined the Department of Sociology and Nuffield College at the University of Oxford in 2015. He is the Director of Research for the Department of Sociology, and a member of the Steering Committee. At Nuffield, Dave serves as the Equality and Diversity Fellow, and is the director of a new graduate access initiative launched in 2019 called the Nuffield Undergraduate Scholars Institute. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Oxford QStep Centre, and the incoming director of Nuffield's Centre for Social Investigation. Dave received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Dave's research agenda is primarily organized around three inter-related themes: first, cynicism towards the law; second, the effect of neighbourhood culture and conditions on criminal and delinquent behaviour; and third, prisoner reentry and the collateral consequences of punishment. His book Home Free, which traces the effect of residential displacement among the formerly incarcerated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is set to be published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Another project, called the Maryland Opportunities through Vouchers Experiment (MOVE), involves an experimental housing mobility program for ex-prisoners. Kirk's recent research has appeared in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Criminology, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Areas of Supervision: Dave is available to supervise graduate students, particularly those with interests in criminology, urban sociology, and the use of quantitative methods.