Michael Dawson

University of Chicago | UC · Department of Political Science

Marcus Hunter and Zandria Robinson have provided us with an innovative methodology for analysing “maps” of African Americans’ lived political, social and cultural experiences past and present. Their powerful innovation is creating maps of the black experience based on black people’s lived experience. They argue that carefully tracing spatially blac...

This article examines how the racial order in the United States has evolved since the Jim Crow era. Two leading characterizations of the current situation are that we live in a postracial society and that we live in an era best described as the New Jim Crow. We probe the key differences between the Jim Crow racial order and the racial terrain of th...

Wacquant's ‘Marginality, Ethnicity and Penality in the Neo-liberal City’ makes important contributions to our understanding of the role of state in shaping patterns of racial domination under neo-liberal regimes. As important as his contributions are, however, two major flaws in his conceptual framework undermine the utility of his approach for eit...

This panel presents current research projects that compare identity, race, religion and gender, within and across national boundaries in the Americas and Europe. NCOBPS is an excellent location for exploring this rich range of research, and for comparing empirical, theoretical, substantive and methodological findings across nations and regions. Imp...

The Trayvon Martin tragedy, the optimistic spectacle of the election and inauguration of Barack Obama during late 2008 and early 2009, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina seemingly represent three very different events with little in common except the claim made by some that all were in some way related to racial politics in the US. Many would c...

This conversation, hosted by the Harvard Book Store and moderated by Rev. Eugene Rivers, took place in conjunction with the Boston Review 's (2012) forum on the power and potential of black movements. Featuring a lead article by Michael C. Dawson, the Future of Black Politics forum included responses from William Julius Wilson, Andra Gillespie, Tom...

Moderator Dr. David Covin, California State University, Sacramento (retired) Panelists Dr. Dianne Pinderhughes, University of Notre Dame Dr. Michael Dawson, University of Chicago Dr. Robert C. Smith, San Francisco State University Dr. Menna Demessie Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Dr. Tiffiany Howard, University of Nevada, Las Vegas We ask th...

Although he promised no real left agenda, Barack Obama was elected by hopeful voters who projected onto him a deep desire for a truly transformative and progressive presidency. Instead, the Obama administration expanded US imperialism abroad and economic policies that benefited the wealthiest of individuals and corporations domestically. The follow...

Presenter: Michael C. Dawson, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College, The University of Chicago This panel will feature Professor Michael Dawson presenting the key research ideas and findings from his book, Not in our lifetimes. The following panelists will provide prepared comments on the book after Professor Dawson's pre...

It is fitting that in the same issue that we present a previously unpublished article by W. E. B. Du Bois and host a symposium reviewing new major works on his political philosophy, we also present major essays debating the contours of the color line in the twenty-first century. Immigration and a strong rightward movement in American society are ra...

Abstract will be provided by author.

This issue of the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race is dedicated to the living memory and many contributions of distinguished historian John Hope Franklin. Writing in his autobiography Mirror to America, Franklin said that:

Many commentators, both conservative and liberal, have celebrated the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, claiming the election signified America has truly become a “post-racial” society. It is not just Lou Dobbs who argues the United States in the “21st century [is a] post-partisan, post-racial society.” This view is consis...

Has Barack Obama's success transformed the racial divide? Did he somehow transcend or help bring to an end centuries of racial division in the United States? Did he deliberately run a strategically race-neutral, race-evading campaign? Did his race and ingrained American racism constrain the reach of his success? Have we arrived at that postracial m...

African and African American Studies Has Barack Obama's success transformed the racial divide? Did he somehow transcend or help bring to an end centuries of racial division in the United States? Did he deliberately run a strategically race-neutral, race-evading campaign? Did his race and ingrained American racism constrain the reach of his success?...

African and African American Studies Sociology Barack Obama was elected president of the United States shortly before this issue of the Du Bois Review went to press. The historic nature of the 2008 presidential campaign was evident early in the process, particularly as it became clear that the Democratic Party would nominate either a woman or an Af...

The year 2008 has provided many opportunities to look back and take stock of what has and has not changed along the color line. Perhaps of greatest salience is that this year marks four decades of uneven progress since the tragic assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. It also marks the fortieth anniversary of t...

African and African American Studies Sociology Version of Record

As we write this introduction, Senator Barack Obama, son of an African immigrant to the United States, is in the middle of a fierce fight to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for president. Obama's candidacy brings into stark relief the fluid and evolving status of immigrants of color, regardless of either the outcome of the electoral battle...

There is a deep irony about the current political moment. Though having an immigrant background is arguably a core feature of how most Americans understand themselves, the topic of immigration has in recent years risen to a fever pitch of political controversy and polarized views. Of course, the immigrant streams to the United States today differ s...

I want to start with a story from the period of chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. I am going to present some data as an entry into a brief discussion of how different publics evaluated the disaster, and the implications for how we think about civil society in the United States.

By the time you read this issue of the Du Bois Review , it will be nearly a year after the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina swept the Gulf Coast and roiled the nation. While this issue does not concentrate on the disaster, (the next issue of the DBR will be devoted solely to research on the social, economic, and political ramifications of the K...

Elections matter. This is perhaps especially true in times of deepening inequality and cultural polarization. Commentators on both sides of the political aisle were in unison on two points: the 2004 presidential election was the most important such contest in a century, and the U.S. electorate has never seemed so sharply divided. The intensity of f...

The Council of the American Political Science Association approved the appointment of a Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy in the fall of 2002. A fifteen-member task force was convened in January 2003 and collectively worked during the subsequent eighteen months to prepare extensive reviews of research on inequality and American democr...

Although this essay appears very close to the most consequential presidential election since 1980, it was written months before during the week that former President Ronald Reagan died. The great majority of the U.S. media praised Reagan without any critical reflection—calling him the greatest president of the twentieth century, the man who brought...

W. E. B. Du Bois is a figure of legendary stature, with accomplishments that run from the purely academic to the profoundly political. In the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, we at once memorialize and aim to continuously re-energize one core strand of the great man's life work: namely, Du Bois's legacy as a producer and catalyst fo...

Proponents and opponents of reparations for Blacks vociferously disagree. Conservative opponents argue that reparations for Black slavery are a disastrous idea and that proponents are motivated by either greed or the desire to do harm to the republic. Liberal and left opponents of reparations argue that the advocacy on this issue will lead to...

This stunning book represents the most comprehensive analysis to date of the complex relationships between black political thought and black political identity and behavior. Ranging from Frederick Douglass to rap artist Ice Cube, Michael C. Dawson brilliantly illuminates the history and current role of black political thought in shaping political d...

The cry of “Black Power” shook American society three decades ago. “Black Power” was a slogan that energized a generation of young African Americans, troubled their elders such as Dr. King (who agreed with many of the goals, but saw the slogan itself as divisive), and appalled the great majority of whites. As seriously as the slogan divided blacks,...

William Wilson and other scholars argue that one of the attributes of devastated neighborhoods is social isolation. We shall explore whether neighborhoods that seem to indicate significant social isolation also foster political isolation. We begin our examination by providing a description of the poor in the samples from the 1989 Detroit Area Study...

Dissertation Abstract In the span of three decades, the U.S. has multiplied its prison population by a factor of six. Indeed, since the day that the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in its 1954 landmark decision, Brown v. Board, nine times as many blacks are confined. 1 The aim of my dissertation is to understand the causes o...