John Major Eason is an associate professor of sociology and international and public affairs at Brown University.

He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. Eason, a native of Evanston, Illinois, received a bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a M.P.P. from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Before entering graduate school, Eason was a church-based community organizer focused on housing and criminal justice issues. He also served as a political organizer for then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama.

Eason's research interests challenge existing models and develop new theories of community, health, race, punishment and rural/urban processes in several ways. First, by tracing the emergence of the rural ghetto, he establishes a new conceptual model of rural neighborhoods. Next, by demonstrating the function of the ghetto in rural communities, he extends concentrated disadvantage from urban to rural community process. These relationships are explored through his book, "Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison Proliferation" (University of Chicago Press).

Eason uses multi-method, multi-level approaches in empirical investigations ranging from imprisonment, prisoner reentry, murder, healthcare access and health disparities across the rural-urban continuum.