"Jamie Chang has studied homelessness for two decades. She’s spent more time interviewing people in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district and examining the role of drugs, alcohol and government policies on city streets than almost any other scholar. Her personal experience with unhoused people dates back to her childhood.
Yet until recently, Chang, a new faculty member this fall at UC Berkeley, didn’t actively promote her research. For years, she worried she’d ruffle feathers in a hyper-politicized field rife with misinformation, short-sighted solutions and hot takes.
Then, she remembered what a close mentor had said about her duty as a social scientist: “It's not fair for you to do this research with all these participants and not tell their story.”