Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor
About
Carla O’Connor's disciplinary emphasis is sociology of education and she has expertise in the areas of African-American achievement, urban education, and ethnographic methods. Her work includes examinations of how black identity is differentially constructed across multiple contexts and informs achievement outcomes, how black people’s perceptions of opportunity vary within space and influence academic orientation, and how black educational resilience and vulnerability is structured by social, institutional, and historical forces.
O’Connor’s work has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Sociology of Education, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. She co-edited (with Erin McNamara Horvat) the book, Beyond Acting White: Reframing the Debate on Black Student Achievement. She is a founding member of the NSF-sponsored Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context.
O’Connor was named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, an honor given to tenured faculty with “exceptional commitment” to undergraduate teaching. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago.
O'Connor teaches courses in the following program(s):
Educational Foundations and Policy
Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation
Combined Program in Education and Psychology
Secondary Teacher Education
Elementary Teacher Education
Elementary Teacher Education (ELMAC)
Affiliations
Research Affiliations
Grants
