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Ilana Redstone

Profile picture for Ilana Redstone

Contact Information

326 Lincoln Hall MC-454
702 South Wright Street
Associate Professor

Biography

My focus is on understanding and addressing the way certainty drives our tendency to judge harshly, demonize, and dismiss people who disagree. We often think of this as a problem of political polarization, a lack of civil discourse, or a lack of viewpoint diversity. Where those are actually the downstream effects of a fundamental problem in how we think. 

In addition to my role as an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, I am the co-director of the Mill Institute at UATX. At the Mill Institute, we work with educators to create classroom spaces where they can challenge settled thinking and explore contentious topics together. 

My work includes:

Research Interests

Viewpoint diversity

Political polarization

Education

PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2005

Courses Taught

SOC 230, Sociology of Political Polarization: Bigots and Snowflakes
SOC 163, Social Problems
SOC 280, Introduction to Social Statistics


Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Sociology
Affiliate, Center for Social and Behavioral Science

Highlighted Publications

Redstone, I., & Villasenor, J. (2020). Unassailable Ideas: How Unwritten Rules and Social Media Shape Discourse in American Higher Education. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190078065.001.0001

View all publications on Illinois Experts

Recent Publications

Akresh, I. R., & Massey, D. S. (2023). Duration of Residence Measurement. In Selected Topics in Migration Studies (pp. 205-206). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19631-7_35

Clark, C. J., Graso, M., Redstone, I., & Tetlock, P. E. (2023). Harm Hypervigilance in Public Reactions to Scientific Evidence. Psychological Science, 34(7), 834-848. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231168777

Iceland, J., & Redstone, I. (2020). The declining earnings gap between young women and men in the United States, 1979–2018. Social Science Research, 92, Article 102479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2020.102479

Redstone, I., & Villasenor, J. (2020). Unassailable Ideas: How Unwritten Rules and Social Media Shape Discourse in American Higher Education. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190078065.001.0001

Akresh, I. R., & Frank, R. (2018). Differential Returns? Neighborhood Attainment among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White New Legal Permanent Residents. City and Community, 17(3), 788-807. https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.12313

View all publications on Illinois Experts