Alford Young, Jr.

Alford A. Young, Jr. is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. He also holds an appointment at that institution's Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). He completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1996. He also received his MA in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1992, and his BA in sociology, psychology, and African American studies (with honors) at Wesleyan University in 1988. His primary area of research has been on low-income African American men, where his emphasis has been on how they construct understandings of various aspects of social reality (i.e., notions of how social mobility, social inequality, and social structure unfolds in American society, of good jobs and work opportunity, of fatherhood and family living). Young has published The Minds of Marginalized Black Men: Making Sense of Mobility, Opportunity, and Future Life Chances (Princeton University Press 2004) and various articles on the worldviews and ideologies of these men. He is completing a manuscript entitled, From the Edge of the Ghetto: African Americans and the World of Work and also working on a follow-up manuscript to The Minds of Marginalized Black Men that examines how African American men who were reared in poverty but who have engaged extreme upward mobility as young adults discuss learning to navigate of race and class-based constraints over the course of their lives. Finally, Young coordinates the Scholars Network on Masculinity and the Well-Being of African American Men, which is an assembly of mid-career scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and applied and professional fields designed to influence social policy and broader public understanding of the cultural dimensions of the condition of African American men.

In his capacity at the NCID, Dr. Young plays a role in:

• Advancing efforts in public engagement for scholars of color and diversity advocates on the faculty.
• Promoting understandings for faculty of color and diversity advocates on the fauclty of how to be institutional change agents.
• Supporting efforts for faculty of color and diversity advocates on the faculty to prepare for and assume institutiional leadership positions.

Current Work:

Dr. Young is completing three book projects:

Black Men Rising: Navigating Race in Pursuit of the American Dream (based on an exploration of how twenty-six Chicago-based young black men, born into poverty but now tracked for white collar and skilled blue-collar careers, utilized family, school, and community experiences to conceptualize and then confronted race-based obstacles pertaining to socio-economic mobility).

The Politics of Black Scholarship: African American Scholars on the Social Utility of Knowledge. (based on assessments of how 100 African American social science and humanities scholars regard the social utility of scholarship about African Americans in terms of how audiences are conceived of for it, how roles and possibilities for this scholarship are conceptualized, and whether and how this scholarship is viewed as a tool for social change).

How It Feels To Be A Problem: Black Men in Crisis on the Crisis of Black Men. (addresses how socio-economically marginalized African American men assess the social condition of men like themselves and the possibilities for resolving it).

Research Area Keyword(s):

Race, poverty, culture, theory

Fun Facts About Me:

Qualitative or quantitative?
Qualitative — many of the issues I research and explore have been assessed via quantiative approaches. Hence, I desire to add balance to those scholarly investigations.

Where can we find you on a Saturday afternoon?
At home writing, watching sports, or preparing to eat out with my family.

What's a random fact about you?
For the first 21 years of my life I grew up and lived in the same apartment building in the East Harlem section of New York City (it was my formal address for 27 years).