Tressie McMillan Cottom Books in Order

Drawing on interviews, institutional research, and her experience in enrollment work, Tressie McMillan Cottom examines America's for-profit colleges. She explores how credential demands and economic insecurity shape students' choices and reproduce inequalities in higher education.

Edited by Jessie Daniels, Karen Gregory, and Tressie McMillan Cottom, this collection connects digital technologies with sociological questions. Contributors examine work, education, race, gender, and institutions, placing inequality at the center of studying digital life.

Edited by Tressie McMillan Cottom and William A. Darity Jr., this scholarly collection examines market-driven higher education. Contributors compare institutional sectors, enrollment patterns, degree completion, and the social consequences of expanding for-profit colleges and universities.

Cottom combines personal experience with social analysis in eight essays examining race, gender, beauty, money, and media. Her discussions of everyday culture, sexual violence, and infant mortality explore how American institutions shape Black women’s lives.