Before joining the GSE faculty in 1995 as an assistant professor, Dr. Hall was a postdoctoral fellow at Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where she conducted research on community-based poverty initiatives. Together with colleagues at the Consortium on Chicago School Research, she collaborated on studies focusing on local school councils and school-community partnerships in Chicago. She also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Anthropology, is a member of the graduate groups in Sociology, Folklore, Social Policy and Practice, and South Asia Studies and is affiliated with the Urban Studies and Asian American Studies programs. She served as Graduate Group Chair for South Asia Regional Studies in 2006. She received the Michael Katz Excellence in Teaching Award in the Urban Studies Program in 2001 and the Provost’s Award for Distinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring in 2009.

Dr. Hall has been a Fulbright Fellow, a Spencer Dissertation Fellow, a National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellow, and a Salzburg Seminar Fellow. With colleagues Amy Stambach and Bradley Levinson, she was also the recipient of a Spencer Advanced Studies Institute Fellowship that funded three conferences on the state of the art in the field of Anthropology and Education. Dr. Hall is also a fellow of the Penn Urban Research Institute.