Dr. Abby Larson is a sociologist whose written and visual work encompasses culture and the body, as well as other themes, with current fieldwork related to fitness, sports performance, and food systems. 

Since graduating with honors from Stanford (BA, MA) and earning her PhD at NYU, Abby has cultivated her research through fellowships at Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, and as faculty at Rice University. Her research has been supported by sponsors including the National Science Foundation. She has taught and designed new undergraduate and graduate courses at UC Berkeley and Rice, teaching in the Sociology Department and the Schools of Business and Social Science.  While at Stanford and Rice, she worked to design and teach university-wide courses, in a post-doctoral role at Stanford, and as faculty at Rice. She has also offered enrichment programming for organizations such as the Fulbright Program, U.S. Department of State. Abby was honored to receive the German Chancellor Fellowship for Future Leaders in association with a project on belonging and migration in Europe, and she was named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship in her region. 

Currently, she is a visiting scholar in the Department of Sociology at NYU. There, she is advancing research and has a book in preparation for Harvard University Press. 

Abby has also worked to establish and lead new initiatives both within the university and in the private sector throughout her academic career. As a graduate student, she worked with her faculty advisor to help establish the Research Alliance for New York City Schools.  She was Entrepreneur in Residence at the Samsung Accelerator in San Francisco, and she later served as the inaugural Director for the Liu Idea Lab for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Rice University. In 2024, she established ABBY ATHLETICS, focused on cutting-edge, evidence-based fitness and sports performance coaching while creating new knowledge.

Abby is originally from Minnesota and Montana, and she has lived in Argentina, France, Germany, and England. She speaks Spanish, rusty German and French, and she currently lives in New York City. 

Contact: [email protected]