Eric Hirsch is Associate Professor of Sociology.  He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.  He teaches courses in the areas of urban sociology, race and ethnic relations, social movements, and homelessness.  He has published widely on homelessness, social movements, and community organizing.  Professor Hirsch writes the annual reports on Rhode Island’s homeless shelters for the Rhode Island Food and Shelter Board.  He recently has completed a report “A View from the Street: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions for Homelessness in Rhode Island”, a report on street homelessness funded by the Rhode Island Foundation.

Other publications include a book Urban Revolt: Ethnic Politics in the Nineteenth Century Chicago Labor Movement, by the University of California Press; "Culture in Rebellion: The Appropriation and Transformation of the Veil in the Algerian Revolution," with Rick Fantasia in Bert Klandermans and Hank Johnston, editors, Culture and Social Movements; "Homeless Communities: The Causes and Consequences of  Homelessness in New York City," with Mark Stamey, in Gregg Carter, editor, Perspectives on Current Social Problems; and “Sacrifice for the Cause: Group Processes, Recruitment, and Commitment in a Student Social Movement,” in American Sociological Review.

Professor Hirsch is the Government Relations Chair of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, and a founding member of People to End Homelessness, an advocacy group made up primarily of homeless and formerly homeless Rhode Islanders.  He is the recipient of the Voice for the Voiceless award presented by the Fund for Community Progress in 2001 and the Carol McGovern RMS Award for advocacy on the issue of homelessness in 1999.