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Troy Duster's Life

Troy Duster is a sociologist with research interests in the sociology of science, public policy, race and ethnicity and deviance. Currently Duster is a Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and professor of sociology and director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at New York University. Duster has been involved with areas of social science, ethnics, and equality (primarily focusing on race) which he demonstrates by publishing various books. Duster has also served as president of the American Sociological Association from the close of the 2004 ASA Annual Meeting and through the 2005 ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in August 2005 in which he gave his presidential address entitled: " Comparative Perspectives and Competing Explanations: Taking on the Newly Configured Reductionist Challenge to Sociology". He contributed to his first book, The Legislation of Morality: Drugs, Crime, and Law (1970), his second book, Backdoor to Eugenics (1990), and his most recent book, White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-blind Society.

He is the grandson of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett.^[1]

Career

Troy Duster is very well known for the work he has done over the years. He has been granted with many awards throughout his career, from his research, scholarly journals, books, speeches, and mentoring. He has also taken on the position of editing for Theory and Society, Sociological Inquiry, Contemporary Sociology, The American Sociologist, and the ASA's Rose Monograph series. He is currently a member of the Social Science Research Council, and has assisted in the following committees;

•The National Academy of Sciences,

•The American Association for the Advancement of Science

•The American Association of Law Schools

•The National Science Foundation

•The Russell Sage Foundation

•The National Institutes of Health

Duster was in charge of the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Human Genome Project. While also serving as a mentor for over 65 PhD students of different racial groups, Asian, African American, Latino, or Native American. At the Institute for the Study of Social Change, he created humane environments where many students, researchers, faculty, and visiting scholars could do productive work. During the past fifteen years, Duster has given more than 250 public speeches and invited lectures around the world, ranging from community colleges to world conferences (Duster).

Publications

In 1970, Duster had published his first book known as, "The Legislation of Morality: Drugs, Crime, and Law". This book covers the sociology of criminal law, particularly the racism of drug laws. He had discovered that in the past 150 years, the dilemma of addiction had become worse. He showed how the moral indignation regarding addiction at the time of the Harrison Narcotic Law (1914) pointed fingers not at the middle and upper class users of drugs but at the lower class of Americans (Galliher). The second book that was published by Duster was "Backdoor to Eugenics" which was originally released in 1990 but was recently revised in 2003. This book talked about the social and political implications of genetic technologies. The goal from Duster was to help others understand the struggle in pros and cons of; prenatal detection of birth defects, gene therapies, growth hormones, and replace genetic answers to problems linked with racial groups such as Jews, Scandinavians, Native American, Arabs, and African-Americans (Backdoor Eugenics). Duster's most recently published book is called "Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society", which was also released in 2003. The book is a thorough analysis about the political and economic status of minorities in the United States, specifically African-Americans. It talks about the racial inequalities that are still remaining today-wages, family incomes, access to housing or healthcare. This book brings together a team of sociologists, political scientists, economists, criminologists, and scholars to provide an explanation for continued racial inequality in the United States (Novkov).

Troy Duster's research and writings have varied across the sociology of law, science, deviance, inequality, race and education. Aside from the many writings, he has published an assortment of fifteen scholarly journals including;

•Nature

•Social Problems

•Science

•Ethnicities

•Representations

•The Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique

•The American Sociologist

•Philosophy and Social Action

•Politics and the Life Sciences

•Crime and Delinquency

•Society

•Social Psychiatry

•The Black Scholar

•Les Temps Modernes

•The Japanese Journal of Science

Education

Although Troy Duster was raised in poverty, he was able to attend a university on an academic scholarship, the Pullman Foundation Scholarship, a scholarship for minority and students in poverty. This scholarship not only paid his tuition, but it gave him spending money as well. With this scholarship Troy Duster attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate student, being one of three blacks in his class. When he first started at Northwestern his major was Journalism but changed his major after he and his friends became disappointed with journalism after the incident on the Chicago elevated train. After changing majors Troy was mentored by a professor in the sociology department, Ray Mack, and they were both part of the committee that dispense racism on campus. In one of his classes with Mack, he was introduced to Wendell Bell, Bell offered him a Teacher's Assistant position with him at the University of California, Los Angeles. Troy Duster earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology in 1957. 

After getting his Bachelors degree at Northwestern and being accepted, he went to UCLA for graduate school to complete his masters degree. While being there he studied ethnomethodology with Harold Garfinkel and methodology with W.S. Robinson. He then earned his Masters degree in Sociology in 1959. By the time he graduated from UCLA, Ray Mack, had become department of chair in Sociology at Northwestern University and invited Duster back to gain his PhD and work along his side on a manuscript "Patterns of Minority Relations." While doing this Duster, also wrote on social responses to mental illness and abnormality which then allowed him to get his PhD in Sociology in 1962 from Northwestern University. 

Awards

Troy Duster made significant contributions to the advancement of racial justice both academically and socially. He is considered an honored man, and due to his achievements he has gained a lot of awards throughout his career.

Year	Award
1970	He served as Chair of the Sociology Department at the UC Berkeley where he advocated for the inclusiveness of minorities in higher education
2004	Duster’s book, “Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society,” was not only a finalist for the 2004 C Wrights Miller Award, but it actually won the Benjamin Hooks Award
2016	Doctor of Letters: Williams College
2016	Du-Bois-Johnson Frazier Award: American Sociological Association
2016	Exemplary mentor all over the world: Duster has given more than 250 public speeches globally
2016	Guggenheim Fellowship: Prestigious award from the London Schools of Economics

References

↑ Novkov, Julie (2006-09-25). "Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society (review)". Rhetoric & Public Affairs. 9 (2): 334–337. doi:10.1353/rap.2006.0050. ISSN 1534-5238.

↑ "Backdoor to Eugenics". Goodreads. Retrieved 2016-10-06.

↑ Galliher, John F. (2015-12-03). Troy Duster: Berkeley Sociologist, Teacher, and Civil Rights Activist. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780761867012.

↑ "Troy Duster". American Sociological Association. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2016-10-06.