Event

Professor Saperstein received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California-Berkeley. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.

Her research focuses on the social processes through which people come to perceive, name and deploy “racial” differences -- in public discourse, academic research and their everyday lives -- and their consequences for explaining, and reinforcing, social inequality. Her current research projects explore several strands of this subject, including:

- The relationship between individual-level racial fluidity and the maintenance of group boundaries, racial stereotypes and hierarchies.
-The implications of methodological decisions, especially the measurement of race and ethnicity in surveys, for studies of stratification and health disparities.

The Past and Present Significance of Racial Mobility

 In this talk, Professor Aliya Saperstein will outline the need for a “racial mobility” perspective, analogous to classic sociological studies of status attainment and class mobility. Evidence for a more dynamic understanding of race and inequality in the United States comes from different historical periods, and is consistent across outcomes and datasets, as well as with the results of controlled experiments. Further progress on the subject requires changes in data collection and research practice, including how we conceptualize reliability and validity in the measurement of race.

Relevant Readings:

• "Racial Fluidity and Inequality in the United States." Aliya Saperstein and Andrew M. Penner. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 118, No. 3 (November 2012), pp. 676-727.
• "A 'Mulatto Escape Hatch' in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era." Aliya Saperstein and Aaron Gullickson. Demography, Vol. 50, No. 5 (Oct. 2013), pp. 1921-1942.
• "Developing a Racial Mobility Perspective." Aliya Saperstein. Russell Sage Foundation Blog Series. March 2015.

Recent Video:

• Saperstein's research is featured on The Colbert Report (2014)

 *This event is co-sponsored with the Penn Program on Race, Science and Society.