Rachel Skaggs
Short-term Researcher, SCAS.
Associate Professor of Arts Management & Holder of the Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Professorship in Arts Management, The Ohio State University
Rachel Skaggs is a sociologist who conducts research about artistic careers and arts ecosystems using qualitative, quantitative, and social network methods. Her research focuses on how workers in post-bureaucratic employment situations (freelance, project-based, self-employment, and other forms of free agency) are able to craft careers out of a series of self-directed projects and jobs, particularly in creative industries. She is especially interested in how workers in these situations collaborate and cooperate along the way. Her research has focused on topics such as the importance of social networks in music industry careers, arts entrepreneurship, how artists learn to deal with rejection and failure, and the public perceptions of artists in local communities.
Rachel Skaggs is in residence during the second half of May, 2026.
This information is accurate as of the academic year 2025-26.