In his research, Peter Bahr seeks to deconstruct students' pathways into, through, and out of community colleges and into the workforce or on to four-year postsecondary institutions. His latest work is focused particularly on students' course-taking and enrollment patterns in the community college and their subsequent labor market outcomes, such as employment and earnings, as well as the impact of students' varied patterns of course-taking and enrollment on the assessment of community college performance.

He also recently was awarded a research grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to study older learners in Ohio’s community colleges with colleagues at the Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University. In a separate line of inquiry, he is investigating students' navigation of the STEM transfer curriculum in community colleges, with the objective of strengthening the pipeline of students into STEM baccalaureate programs. Bahr joined the faculty of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan in 2009. He previously held a faculty appointment in the Department of Sociology at Wayne State University (2004-2009), a research appointment in the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges (2001-2003), and a research appointment in the California Department of Education (2000-2001). He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California-Davis.