Brian J. McCabe is a recipient of the 2026 Morris Rosenberg Award for Outstanding Sociological Achievement from the DC Sociological Society. The award nomination letter describes him as “a noted scholar of urban sociology and housing policy [and] outstanding teacher and mentor, [who] has maintained an energetic record of research, teaching, and service.” McCabe is Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, where he also holds an affiliated appointment in the McCourt School of Public Policy. He completed a Master’s degree in urban geography at the London School of Economics in 2004 and a PhD in Sociology at New York University in 2011.
His nominator notes that “Professor McCabe is a highly productive and engaged scholar working at the intersection of urban sociology, housing policy, and politics, and the quality and relevance of his research is remarkable.” He is the author of The Housing Lottery: How Scarcity Shapes America’s Rental Assistance Programs, to be published by the University of Chicago Press this year, and co-author of Democracy Vouchers and the Quest for Fairer Elections in Seattle (Temple University Press, 2024). He is co-editor of two recent works, “Fifty Years of the Housing Choice Voucher Program: A Symposium on the History and Future of Tenant-Based Rental Assistance” in Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research (2024), and The Sociology of Housing: How Homes Shape Our Social Lives (University of Chicago Press, 2023). He has also published several peer-reviewed journal articles including “Ready to Rent: Administrative Decisions and Poverty Governance in the Housing Choice Voucher Program” (American Sociological Review, 2023), which the nomination describes as “a rare examination of poverty governance focused on public housing agencies [that are] ‘omnipresent in the lives of the poor.’”
Professor McCabe has also demonstrated excellence in teaching and mentoring. The nomination letter notes that, “throughout his career, student evaluations of his courses have been outstanding. He brings a level of creativity to his courses that students appreciate. He has used his deep knowledge of the D.C. metropolitan area to imagine active learning activities that engage students beyond the classroom. In addition to a course studying gentrification through murals and public art across the city, he developed an innovative gentrification course with a lab component that takes students out of the classroom and into the real world.” The nominator elaborates, “another sign of Professor McCabe’s commitment to and investment in students is that he publishes with undergraduate students.”
McCabe has also participated actively in “major policy debates on housing and urban development.” His nominator explains, “Professor McCabe’s steady stream of publications, policy reports, and op-eds on housing policy position him as an influential scholar in this field.” He took a two-year leave of absence from Georgetown (2022-2024) to serve as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Office of Policy Development and Research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Biden Administration.
The nomination letter also describes Professor McCabe’s “substantial service to our department, Georgetown University, and the field of sociology more broadly. Among other activities, he currently serves as co-editor of the ASA journal City & Community, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology, and on Georgetown’s Curriculum Committee. He is a past Faculty Director for Research and Scholarship at Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service. He has also served a three-year term on the council of ASA’s Community and Urban Sociology Section.”
The nominator concludes, “Professor McCabe’s record of service, teaching, and scholarship paints a picture of a highly productive and engaged scholar [who] is a valuable asset to the sociology community in the DMV.”
Brian McCabe will receive the Rosenberg award at the annual DCSS Awards Reception on April 30, 2026.
The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Nominations are encouraged for individuals from any career setting, including but not limited to: academics, government service, private research, consulting, retirement and/or independent scholarship. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings.
Morris Rosenberg began his career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cornell University in 1955, and moved to the Laboratory on Socio-environmental Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1957. He re-entered the academic world in 1974 as Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974, and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1975, where he taught until his death in 1992. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a widely-used measure in social science research. Read more about the Rosenberg award, including a list of past winners, on the DCSS website.
