Professional and Biographical Information

Degrees

Ph.D., Harvard University (1973)
M.A., Harvard University (1971)
B.A., University of Michigan (1969)
A.M. (honorary), Amherst College (1983)

Teaching Interests

In the spring semester, 2016, I began teaching a new course titled Intergroup Dialogue on Race. This highly interactive course brings together 16 students to examine the roles race and other intersecting identities play in their lives. Course work includes an interdisciplinary blend of scholarly readings, in-class dialogue, experiential learning activities, reflective writing, and an intergroup collaborative action project aimed at addressing a racial inequality on campus. The course readings link students’ personal experiences with race to a socio-historical understanding of individual, institutional, and structural discrimination, and to the ways social inequality is embedded in social institutions and individual consciousness, constraining life chances. The readings address power imbalances within and between racial groups, and the ways privilege is allocated and social inequalities are sustained. Students engage in sustained and respectful dialogue around racial divisions, learning to build skills in intergroup communication, collaboration, and relationships. Students bring their own experiences with race into the classroom as a legitimate process of learning.  Class members will explore similarities and differences between their experiences with race and privilege within and across racial identity groups, with the goal of coming to understand the underlying conditions that account for these different experiences and perceptions.

I teach a First-Year Seminar titled Growing Up in America. The course approaches coming of age from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. We examine the ways in which race, social class, and gender shape the experience of growing up in America through readings from history, psychology, sociology, and literature. We examine lives--past and present, male and female, real and fictional--to understand the factors that influence the experience of coming of age. Our focus is on understanding identity formation, family relationships, education, the American Dream, courtship, sexuality, and the importance of culture and community.

Awards and Honors

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant, 1996-2001

Faculty Research Awards, 2003, 2006, 2017

Scholarly and Professional Activities

Programme Associate, Adolescent Department, Tavistock Clinic, London , England (1986-1987)

 

See also: Research Interests and Selected Publications