Michael C. Dawson

Michael C. Dawson is the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago.  He has also taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard University.  Dawson received his doctorate degree from Harvard University in 1986.  Professor Dawson was co-principal investigator of the 1988 National Black Election Study and was principal investigator with Ronald Brown of the 1993-1994 National Black Politics Study.  He directed numerous additional public opinion studies between 2000 and 2010.  His research interests have included the development of quantitative models of African American political behavior, identity, and public opinion, the political effects of urban poverty, and African-American political ideology.  This work also includes delineating the differences in African American public opinion from those of other racial and ethnic groups.  More recently he has combined his quantitative work with work in political theory.  His first two books, Behind the Mule:  Race and Class in African-American Politics (Princeton 1994) and Black Visions:  The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies (Chicago 2001), won multiple awards including the latter winning the prestigious Ralph Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association.  Recent books include Not In Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and Blacks In and Out of the Left (Harvard University Press, 2013).  Dawson has also published numerous journal articles, book chapters and opinion pieces.  Most recently he has with Megan Ming Francis launched a nationwide effort to study the intersection of race and capitalism within the U.S.  As part of this effort he has articles coming out in 2016 in Public Culture (with Francis), and Critical Historical Studies. He is with Lawrence Bobo, the founding co-editor of the journal The Du Bois Review (Cambridge University Press), as well as being the founding and current director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago.  Dawson has served as the Chair of the Political Science Department of the University of Chicago. Dawson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.  Dawson has been interviewed extensively by the print and broadcast media including the Washington Post, The Economist Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, NPR, PBS, BBC, CNN, BET, and ABC News.