Harvard University Professor Lawrence D. Bobo Elected to Joint Center Board of Governors

WASHINGTON, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions, today announced the election of Harvard University Professor Lawrence D. Bobo to its Board of Governors.

Professor Bobo is the W. E. B. DuBois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. He holds appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Department of African and African American Studies, where his research focuses on the intersection of social inequality, politics, and race.

"We are delighted to welcome to our board one of the nation's foremost scholars – someone who has devoted his career to advancing the understanding of politics and race in America," said board chairman Roderick D. Gillum.  "Professor Bobo's thoughts, ideas, and valuable insights are a welcomed addition to the Board as the Joint Center sharpens its focus on governance and civic participation."  

"We anticipate that Professor Bobo's scholarly experience will be of enormous value to the Joint Center as we explore new approaches for pursuing our research agenda and furthering our mission to expand the effective participation of people of color in the political and public policy arenas," said Ralph B. Everett, President and CEO of the Joint Center.

Professor Bobo is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, an Alphonse M. Fletcher Sr. Fellow, a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. He has held tenured appointments in the sociology departments at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of California, Los Angeles, and at Stanford University where he was Director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

His research has appeared in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Psychology Quarterly, and Public Opinion Quarterly. He is a founding editor of the DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race, published by Cambridge University Press. He is co-author of the award winning book, Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations  (Harvard University Press, 1997, with H. Schuman, C. Steeh, and M. Krysan) and senior editor of Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles  (Russell Sage Foundation, 2000, with M. L. Oliver, J. H. Johnson, and A. Valenzuela). His book, Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion, and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute  (Harvard University Press, 2006, with M. Tuan) was a finalist for the 2007 C. Wright Mills Award. He is currently working on the "Race, Crime, and Public Opinion" project.

A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Professor Bobo holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from the University of Michigan.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color. The Joint Center is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year. To learn more, please visit www.jointcenter.org.

SOURCE Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies