Brian J. McCabe is a Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Sociology. He holds an affiliated appointment in the McCourt School of Public Policy. He is a scholar of urban inequality, housing and public policy.
Professor McCabe is the author of No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the Politics of Homeownership (Oxford University Press, 2016) and the co-author (with Jennifer Heerwig, Stony Brook University) of Democracy Vouchers and the Fight for Fairer Elections in Seattle (Temple University Press, 2024). He is the co-editor (with Eva Rosen, Georgetown University) of The Sociology of Housing: How Homes Shape Our Social Lives (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and a recent volume of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research (with Peggy Bailey, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Housing Choice Voucher program. He has a forthcoming book, The Housing Lottery: Rationing Rental Assistance in America, scheduled to be published with the University of Chicago Press in 2026.
Professor McCabe has published in a range of interdisciplinary journals, including the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Sociological Science, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, City & Community, the Journal of Urban Economics, Housing Policy Debate, and the Journal of the American Planning Association, among others. He regularly presents research at the American Sociological Association, the Urban Affairs Association and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. He is the incoming co-editor-in-chief (with Ann Owens, UCLA) of City & Community, a journal of urban sociology, and serves on the editorial board of Housing Policy Debates.
Since joining the faculty at Georgetown University, Professor McCabe has taught a range of courses on urban studies, inequality and cities, including Housing Policy in America; Gentrification, Justice and the Future of Cities; and The City: Approaches to Urban Studies. He is committed to engaging undergraduate students in the research process and regularly collaborates with students on projects.
An alumnus of Georgetown, Professor McCabe graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 2002. He completed a Masters degree in urban geography at the London School of Economics in 2004 and a PhD in the Sociology Department at New York University in 2011. From 2022 - 2024, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Office of Policy Development & Research (PD&R) at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).