Lawrence D. Bobo

W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences

Biographical Note

Lawrence D. Bobo is the W. E. B. Du Bois 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. His research focuses on the intersection of social inequality, politics, and race.

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 Du Bois 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 most recent 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 2007 C. Wright Mills Award. He is currently working on the Race, Crime, and Public Opinion project.

Professor Bobo is an elected member of the National Academy of Science 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.

Recent Presentations

Bobo, Lawrence D. June 20, 2011. "On De-Coupling Race, Crime and Punishment" Remarks and Presentation.

Recent Papers

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2011. "Somewhere between Jim Crow & Post-Racialism: Reflections on the Racial Divide in America Today." Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Spring 2011, Volume 140, Number 2: 11-36.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Victor S. Thompson. 2011. "Thinking about Crime: Race and Lay Accounts of Lawbreaking Behavior." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 634, No 1, March 2011: 16-38.

"As American as Barack Obama: Commentary on Nilanjana Dasgupta and Kumar Yogeeswaran's 'Obama Nation? Implicit Beliefs About American Nationality'" in The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America? Gregory S. Parks and Matthew W. Hughey (editors). New York: Oxford University Press, 91-93.

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2010. "Claiming Human Dignity." Du Bois Review 7(2): 253-254.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Michael C. Dawson. 2010. "Still Walking the Tightrope." Du Bois Review 7(1): 1-2.

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2010. "Inequality and US Society: A Review of Douglas Massey's Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System." Du Bois Review 7(1): 30-34.

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2010. "Obama and the Great Progressive Disconnect." Pathways Spring 2010: 14-17.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Victor Thompson. 2010. "Racialized Mass Incarceration: Poverty, Prejudice, and Punishment." in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century, edited by Hazel R. Markus and Paula Moya. New York: Norton, 322-355.

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2009. "Crime, Urban Poverty, and Social Science." Du Bois Review 6(2): 273-278.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Camille Z. Charles. 2009. "Race in the American Mind: From the Moynihan Report to the Obama Candidacy."The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621: 243-259.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Michael C. Dawson. 2009. "A Change Has Come: Race, Politics, and the Path to the Obama Presidency."Du Bois Review 6(1): 1-14.

Bobo, Lawrence D. 2009. "Obama and the Burden of Race"Focus Magazine 37(4): 16-17.

Other Select Papers

Bobo Blog: From The Root.com

Coakley's Massachusetts Meltdown

Tribute to Ann Nixon Cooper

Making the Right Mistake

On Obama's Beer Summit

On The Racial Divide

Gates Arrest Outrage!

On Sarah Palin Resignation

On Republican Intransigence

On Post-Racial America

On Black Culture

End the Punitiveness Binge

Message to Democrats: Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Can Our Politics Stop Being Stupid?
It's Time for President Obama to Become a Leader

Bobo Blog Classics

Secrets of Neocon Noir

President Obama

Black Gulag

06/28/2011

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Offered This Academic Year

Sociology 183 ( Spring )	Race and Ethnic Relations	Catalog #70535
AAAS10 ( Spring )	Introduction to African-American Studies (with Prof. H. L. Gates)	Catalog #0802

A Sampling of Courses Offered in Other Years

Sociology 185	Race and Crime in America: Conference Course
African & African American Studies 146	Black America in Transition
Sociology 248	Race, Politics, and Social Inequality
African & African American Studies 147	Racial Identity, Politics, and Public Policy