Young, Gifted, and Black: Understanding the Experiences of Black Students at Elite Colleges and Universities

In light of ongoing efforts to eliminate the consideration of race in college admissions, and increasing concern about both racial and economic inequality in American society, there has been a renewed interest in unerstanding why African Americans and Latinos earn lower grades and drop out of college at higher rates than whites and Asians, even when they come from similar social class backgrounds, family structures, have the same academic abilities and are equally prepared for college. This course surveys competing explanations for racial differences in collegiate outcomes, and the potential consequences for 1) equal access to and achievement in higher education, 2) social mobility, and 3) intergroup relations more generally.

We will also spend time considering the diverse origins and backgrounds of students of African descent; something that much of the social science literature tends to minimize or ignore. Specifically, we will explore diversity on the dimensions of 1) race 2) immigrant origins and generationals status, 3) skin tone, 4) gender, 5) social class, 6) and interracial contact, and the degree to which intragroup diversity contributes to differences in various social, psychological, and academic outcomes.

Camille Z. Charles

Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences

Professor of Africana Studies, Sociology, and Education

Director, Center for Africana Studies

Camille Z. Charles is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, Africana Studies, and Education, and Director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Won't You be My Neighbor: Race, Class, and Residence in Los Angeles (Russell Sage, Fall 2006), which provides class and race-based explanations for persisting residential segregation by race. She is also co-author of The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America's Selective Colleges and Universities (2003, Princeton University Press). More recently, she is co-author of Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (2009, Princeton University Press), the second in a series based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, and  "Race in the American Mind: From the Moynihan Report to the Obama Candidacy" (co-authored with Lawrence Bobo). Her research  interests are in the areas of urban inequality, racial attitudes, and intergroup relations, racial residential segregation, minorities in higher education, and racial identity. Her work has appeared in Social Forces, Social Problems, Social Science Research, The DuBois Review, the American Journal of Education, the Annual Review of Sociology, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Root.