Isaac William Martin has served since 2019 as the founding chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of California San Diego.

His mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students has been honored with four teaching awards at UCSD.

He is the author of books and articles on such topics as housing policy, municipal taxation, and the political economy of inequality. His books include Foreclosed America (Stanford, 2015), with Christopher Niedt; Rich People’s Movements (Oxford, 2013); and The Permanent Tax Revolt (Stanford, 2008). He is editor of The New Handbook of Political Sociology (Cambridge, 2020), with Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, and Joya Misra; The New Fiscal Sociology (Cambridge, 2009), with Ajay K. Mehrotra and Monica Prasad; and After the Tax Revolt (Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2009), with Jack Citrin. His articles have been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Law and Society Review, Urban Affairs Review, and other journals. His research has been covered on NPR and in the New Yorker and the Washington Post. His books have won awards from the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the Social Science History Association.

He has held various offices within the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the Social Science History Association, and he has served as a consulting editor to journals including the American Journal of Sociology, Contemporary Sociology, Social Problems, and Sociological Science.