Curriculum Vitae
April 2007
M I N I C U R R I C U L U M V I T A E
WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON
Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor
Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JFK Street
Cambridge , MA 02138
Voice: 617-496-4514
Fax: 617-495-5834
E-mail: bill_wilson@harvard.edu
SUMMARY OF EDUCATION
1958 - Wilberforce University: BA, Sociology/History
1961 - Bowling Green State University: MA, Sociology/History
1966 - Washington State University: Ph.D., Sociology/Anthropology
HONORARY DEGREES
1982 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, University of Massachusetts , Amherst
1982 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Long Island University , Brooklyn , New York
1988 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Columbia College , Chicago , Illinois
1988 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Santa Clara University
1988 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Loyola College , Maryland
1989 Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa, Marquette University
1989 Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa , Mt. Holyoke College
1989 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, DePaul University
1991 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, New School for Social Research
1992 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Tulane University
1992 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Bard College
1992 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
1993 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, University of Pennsylvania
1993 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
1993 Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa, Northwestern University
1994 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
1994 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, State University of New York , Binghamton
1994 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Princeton University
1995 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Haverford College
1995 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Columbia University
1995 Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, Rutgers University
1996 Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, Morehouse College
1996 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Johns Hopkins University
1997 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Barat College , Illinois
1997 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Niagara University , New York
1997 Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Dartmouth College
1998 Doctorate, Honoris Causa, University of Amsterdam
1999 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Clarion University, Pennsylvania
1999 Doctorate, Honoris Causa, Colgate University, New York
1999 Doctorate, Honoris Causa, Clark University, Massachusetts
1999 Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Bates College, Maine
1999 Doctor of Social Science, Honoris Causa, Northeastern University, Massachusetts
2000 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
2000 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Ohio State University, Columbus
2001 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Occidental College
2001 Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2001 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Lawrence University
2002 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, University of Miami
2003 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Illinois Wesleyan University
2005 Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Caus, Rhode Island College
2005 Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Amherst College
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
1998-present Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University
1996-1998 Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, Harvard University
1996-present Director, Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
1990-1996 Lucy Flower University Professor, University of Chicago
1990-1996 Director, Center for the Study of Urban Inequality, School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1989-1990 French-American Foundation Visiting Professor of American Studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
1984-1990 Lucy Flower Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Sociology and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1984-1987 Chairman, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1980-1984 Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1981-1982 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California
1978-1981 Chairman, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1975-1980 Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1972-1975 Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1969-1971 Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
1965-1969 Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books
Power, Racism and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives. New York : Macmillan Co., 1973. Reprinted paperback by The Free Press, 1976.
Through Different Eyes: Black and White Perspectives on American Race Relations (co-editor with Peter I. Rose and Stanley Rothman). New York : Oxford University Press, 1973.
The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. University of Chicago Press, 1978. Second and enlarged edition, 1980.
The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago : University of Chicago Press , 1987; published as Les Oubliés de l'Amérique (trans. by Ivan Ermakoff), Paris : Desclée de Brouwer, 1994; published in Japanese, Tokyo : Akashi Shoten, 1999.
The Ghetto Underclass: Social Science Perspectives. (Editor) Newbury Park , CA : Sage Publications, 1993.
Sociology and the Public Agenda . (Editor) Newbury Park , CA : Sage Publications, 1993.
Poverty, Inequality and the Future of Social Policy: Western States in the New World Order (co-editor with Katherine McFate and Roger Lawson). New York : Russell Sage Publications, 1995.
When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1996; published in Japanese, Tokyo : Akashi Shoten, 1999.
The Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics . Berkeley : University of California Press and the Russell Sage Foundation, 1999.
America Becoming: Racial Trends and Consequences in the United States (co-editor with Neil Smelser and Faith Mitchell). Washington , DC : National Academy Press, 2001.
Youth in Cities: A Cross-National Perspective (edited by William Julius Wilson and Marta Tienda). New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.
There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America (with Richard Taub). New York : Knopf, 2006.
Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context (with D. Elliott, S. Menard , A.C. Elliott, B. Rankin and D. Huizinga). New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Chapters in Books
Introduction to Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men by Elliot Liebow. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003 (new edition).
“Social Theory and the Concept ‘Underclass'” in Poverty and Inequality (edited by David B. Grusky and Ravi Kanbur), pp.103-116. Palo Alto : Stanford University Press, 2005.
Foreword to The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America (edited by Xavier de Souza Briggs). Washington , DC : Brookings, 2005.
Foreword to The Segregated Scholars: Black Social Scientists and the Creation of Black Labor Studies, 1890-1950 by Francille Rusan Wilson. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press , 2006.
OTHER HONORS AND AWARDS
Election to National Academies
1988 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1989 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
1990 Member, American Philosophical Society
1991 Member, National Academy of Sciences
1994 Member, National Academy of Social Insurance
1996 Member, National Academy of Education
2000 Fellow, The American Academy of Political and Social Science
2000 Member, Institute of Medicine
Special Awards and Honors
1978 The American Sociological Association's Sydney Spivack Award (for The Declining Significance of Race )
1987-92 MacArthur Prize Fellowship
1987 The Truly Disadvantaged , selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the 15 best books of 1987
1987-88 President, Sociological Research Association
1988 The Washington Monthly Annual Book Award (for The Truly Disadvantaged )
1988 C. Wright Mills Award (for The Truly Disadvantaged ), presented by the Society for the Study of Social Problems
1988 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Washington State University , Pullman , Washington
1988 North Central Sociological Association Scholarly Achievement Award (for The Truly Disadvantaged )
1989-90 President, American Sociological Association
1990 Dubois, Johnson, Frazier Award (for significant scholarship in the field of inter-group relations), presented by the American Sociological Association
1991 Burton Gordon Feldman Award ("for outstanding contributions in the field of public policy") Gordon Public Policy Center, Brandeis University
1992 Participant in the Economic Conference of the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect, Little Rock , Arkansas , December 13-15
1993-94 President, Consortium of Social Science Associations
1994 The Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy
1996 Named one of 25 Most Influential Americans by Time Magizine
1997 When Work Disappears selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of 1996
1997 When Work Disappears selected for the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award ( New York )
1997 Guest of honor, American Academy of Achievement's 1997 Salute to Excellence; recipient of the Golden Plate Award
1998 Recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Award (Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Los Angeles )
1998 Recipient of the American Sociological Association's Committee for the Public Understanding of Sociology Award
1998 Recipient of the Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contributions to Applied Sociology Award (Society for Applied Sociology)
1998 Recipient of the National Medal of Science
2003 Recipient of the A. Philip Randolph/Bayard Rustin Humanitarian Award, Atlanta
2003 Recipient of the Talcott Parsons Prize in the Social Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA
2004 Elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy ( London )
2006 Recipient of “Special Award: Heroes Among Us.” 15th Anniversary, The American Prospect
MEMBERSHIP ON COMMISSIONS AND BOARDS
1987-present, Member, Board of Directors, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
1988-98, Member, Board of Directors (1994-96, Chair of the Board), Russell Sage Foundation
1989-1999, Member, Board of Trustees, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
1999-2002, Chair, Board of Trustees, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
1989-1998, Member, Board of Trustees, Spelman College
1990-1995, Member, Board of Directors, National Humanities Center
1992-2001, Member, Board of Advisors, Jerome Levy Economics Institute
1992-present, Member, Board of Trustees, The Century Foundation
1993-present, Member, Board of Directors, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
1994-2002, Member, Board of Directors, Public/Private Ventures
1994-2001, Member, President's Commission on White House Fellowships
1994-1998, Member, President's Committee on the National Medal of Science
1995-present, Member, Advisory Board, Center for Public Integrity
1995-2006, Member, Board of Trustees, Wilberforce University
1995-1998, Member Board of Directors, National Urban League
1995-2001, Member, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences
1996-present, Member, Board of Advisors, Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, United Negro College Fund
2001-2006 , Member, Board of Trustees, Bard College
2001-present, Member, Board of Governors, Jerome Levy Institute
RECENT NAMED LECTURES
1990-91
1) First Annual Nathan Levin Lecture at the New School for Social Research, New York
2) John Nuveen Lecture at the Divinity School, University of Chicago
3) Davies Forum Lecture at the University of San Francisco
4) T. H. Marshall Lecture at the University of Southampton, England
1991-92
1) Butts Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Studies Association, Kansas City, Missouri
2) Duvall Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations
3) Birket Williams Lecture at Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
4) Alpern Fellow Lecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
5) Presidential Lecture at the Rosenberg-Humphrey Program in Public Affairs at the City College of New York
6) "I Have a Dream" Foundation Lecture at DePaul University, Chicago
7) Ross Lecture at University of California, Los Angeles
1992-93
1) Henkels Visiting Scholar Lecture at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana
2) 20th Samuel Rubin Lecture at Columbia University Law Schoo , New York
3) Benjamin E. Youngdahl Lecture at Washington University, St. Louis , Missouri
4) Fourth Charles Lawrence Memorial Lecture at Brooklyn College, New York
5) Herman G. James Lecture on Municipal Government at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
1993-94
1) Obert C. Tanner Lecture on Human Values at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2) Roberta Simmons Memorial Lecture at meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, California
3) Riecker Lecture at the University of Arizona, Tucson
4) Hollis A. Moore Lecture at Bowling Green State University, Ohio
5) Gilbert Osofsky Lecture at the University of Illinois, Chicago
6) Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture at the University of Chicago
1994-95
1) Gunnar Myrdal Lecture at the University of Stockholm, Sweden
2) Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lecture at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC
1995-96
1) Earl and Edna Stice Lecture at the University of Washington, Seattle
2) Frank Porter Graham Lecture at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
3) Andrew Dixon White Lecture at Cornell University
4) A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture in Race Relations at Arizona State University - Tempe
5) Aaron Wildavsky Forum Lecture, in the Aaron Wildavsky Forum for Public Policy, at the University of California at Berkeley
1997-98
1) Gannett Lecture at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2) Daniel Patrick O'Connor Memorial Lecture at Colorado College, Colorado Springs
3) Jonathan Daniels Lectureship at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA
4) Melvin Tumin Lecture on Social Inequality at Princeton University
5) W.E.B. and Shirley Du Bois Lecture at Colgate University
6) Daniel Fischer Lecture at Dudley House, Harvard University
7) Grace Towns Hamilton Lecture at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
8) Butler A. Jones Lecture at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
9) Victor Johnson Lecture at Amherst College, Amherst, MA
1998-99
1) W.E.B. DuBois Memorial Address, Community Church of Boston, Boston, MA
2) Jan Patocka Memorial Lecture, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, Austria
1999-2000
1) Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer, Louisiana State University
2) Allison Davis Lecture, Northwestern University
3) Stella Saltonstall Lecturer, New School for Social Research
4) Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture at Brown University
5) Martin Luther King, Jr. Series Lecturer at Clarion University, Clarion, PA
6) Colin Powell Lecture at City College of New York
7) Sidney Kaplan Memorial Lecture at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst
8) Beth and Richard Sackler Lecture on Sociology and Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania
9) Charles F. Bonser Distinguished Lecture in Public Policy, Indiana University, Bloomington
10) Saul O. Sidore Lecture, Plymouth State College, NH
2000-01
1) Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture, Georgetown University Law Center
2001-02
1) National Institutes of Health Director's Lecture
2) Robert I. Wishnick Endowment for Human Services Lecturer, Adelphi University
2002-03
1) Inaugural Lecture, Institute for the Study of Social Change, University College Dublin, Ireland
2003-04
1) Matthew Lemert Memorial Lecture, Wesleyan University
2004-05
1) Martin Luther King Lecture, President's Lecture Series, University of Montana, Missoula
2) Annual Urban Lecture Series Speaker, Hunter College