Faces of UNC Asheville

Joe Sulock

Professor of Economics

“Do the poor vote at the same rate as the less poor? Are the poor more likely to be incarcerated? What is the connection between religion and poverty? There’s no end of interesting opportunities for undergraduate research on poverty.”

Economics Professor Joe Sulock will explore these questions as the first Cary Caperton Owen Distinguished Professor in Economics, named for Cary Owen of Asheville, former member of the UNC Board of Governors, UNC Asheville Board of Trustees, Buncombe County Commission and Board of Education, and the N.C. Board of Education. A three-year appointment, the professorship is the first of five similar endowments to be established through a commitment of the C.D. Spangler Foundation, which will provide $26.9 million to create 96 distinguished professorships across the UNC system through the Board of Governors Distinguished Professorship Program.

Consider that nearly 12 percent of Americans—36 million people—are classified as “poor” by the U.S. Census Bureau. In North Carolina, 14 percent (1.2 million of the 8.8 million population) fall into that category, which defines “poor” as a family of four with income below $20,000 a year. “These are not only extremely large numbers, but downright astonishing,” says Sulock. “The poor have all sorts of issues to study. They drop out earlier. They score lower on end-of-grade tests. They are less healthy, get less exercise, eat less nutritional food, and are more obese and prone to diabetes."

Faculty in Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Literature, Mathematics, History and other disciplines direct student research on poverty issues, so Sulock also is interested in pursuing the establishment of a Center for Poverty Studies at UNC Asheville.