|
23-25 Jun 2026 Bordeaux (France)
|
Plenary sessions > Plenary session 2Ann Morning is a professor of sociology and the Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at New York University, where she teaches the sociology of race and ethnicity and the sociology of science. Her research has analyzed racial classifications in global censuses (covering nearly 140 countries), contemporary beliefs in the United States and Western Europe about the origins and nature of racialized groups , and the impact of genetics on popular concepts of race. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Sociological Theory, and The Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race.She is the author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach About Human Difference (University of California Press, 2011) and the co-author of An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States (with Marcello Maneri, Russell Sage Foundation, 2022). She received the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award from the American Sociological Association and has served on scientific advisory committees of the U.S. Census Bureau as well as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Beyond her academic work, Ann Morning is involved in public initiatives to raise awareness about the issues surrounding racial classifications and to challenge common misconceptions about genetics and race (she frequently collaborates with media outlets). She advocates for an interdisciplinary approach (sociology, demography, and bioethics) while advising on public policies regarding inclusive censuses in the United States. Examining 'Race' and Other Concepts of Difference in Comparative Perspective Scholars often assume there is a significant gap between the ways that Americans and Europeans think about “race.” According to this view, in the U.S. race is associated with physical characteristics, while in Western Europe the concept has disappeared, and discrimination is based on cultural differences that are seen as insurmountable. However, little research has compared how everyday Americans and Europeans actually think and talk about race. Drawing on interviews conducted with young people in the U.S. and in Italy, I argue that Italian and American understandings of race share notable similarities, even if couched in very different discursive approaches. These empirical findings underpin a new framework for studying the conceptualization of race--and other notions of descent-based difference--across national borders.
|
