PRUDENCE L. CARTER is the Sarah and Joseph Jr. Dowling Professor of Sociology. From 2016-2021, Carter was E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. Carter's research focuses on forces behind enduring inequalities in education and society and their potential solutions. Specifically, she examines academic and mobility disparities shaped by the effects of race, ethnicity, class, and gender in the United States and global society. Her books include the award-winning Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White; Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. & South African Schools; and Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance, co-edited with Dr. Kevin Welner.
Carter is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Education, Sociological Research Association, and the American Education Research Association. Professor Carter is the immediate Past President of the American Sociological Association. In 2021, she received the Berkeley Citation, the highest public honor from the University of California, Berkeley, and she is also the recipient of outstanding career awards for her scholarship from multiple sections of the American Sociological Association and the American Education Research Association.
