Angel Harris
Denise Applewhite
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
106 Wallace Hall
angelh@princeton.edu
Professor Angel Harris’ interests are on how perceptions about the opportunity structure and the system of social mobility influence the extent to which people invest in schooling. His research focuses on the social psychological determinants of the racial achievement gap. Specifically, he examines factors that contribute to African Americans' lower academic achievement and Asian Americans' higher academic achievement relative to Whites. Professor Harris joins Princeton University after spending a year at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Sociology at the University of Michigan, where he received the Rackham Graduate School Distinguished Dissertation Award.
BOOKS:
• Kids Don't Want to Fail: Oppositional Culture and the Black-White Achievement Gap (Harvard University Press, 2011).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Studies on Education
• Harris, Angel L. (2006) "I (Don't) Hate School: Revisiting Oppositional Culture Theory of Blacks' Resistance to Schooling." Social Forces 85: 797-834.
• Harris, Angel L., and Keith Robinson. (2007). "Schooling Behaviors or Prior Skills?: A Cautionary Tale of Omitted Variable Bias within the Oppositional Culture Theory" Sociology of Education 80: 139-57.
• Chavous, Tabbye M., Angel Harris, Deborah Rivas, Lumas Helaire, and Laurette Green. (2004). "Racial Stereotypes and Gender in Context: African Americans at Predominantly Black and Predominantly White Colleges." Sex Roles 51: 1-16.
Studies on Adolescent Development/Racial Identity
• Mahoney, Joseph L., Angel L. Harris, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. (2006). "Organized Activity Participation, Positive Youth Development and the Over-Scheduling Hypothesis." Social Policy Report, 20 (4):3-30. http://www.srcd.org/spr.html
• Lacy, Karyn and Angel L. Harris, "Breaking the Class Monolith: Understanding Class Differences in Black Adolescents' Attachment to Racial Identity." In Dalton Conley, David Grusky, Mike Hout, and Annette Lareau (eds.), Social Class: How does it Work? New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press (Forthcoming).