Victor Ray is a Nonresident Fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He also serves as the F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa. His research applies critical race theory to classic sociological questions to show how race shapes social processes typically considered race-neutral, such as organizational policy. He is working on several projects: a popular book on critical race theory and a manuscript extending his work on race and organizations (for the University of Chicago Press).
His work has been published in the American Sociological Review, American Behavioral Scientist, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Contexts, Ethnic and Racial Studies, The Journal of Marriage and Family, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and Sociological Theory. His work has won multiple awards, including the early career award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and the Theory Prize from the American Sociological Association’s Theory Section.
Dr. Ray is also an active public scholar, publishing commentary in outlets such as The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Boston Review. His work has been funded by the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
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Areas of Expertise
- Organizational Theory
- Critical Race Theory
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Current Positions
- Nonresident Fellow, Governance Studies; The Brookings Institution
- F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies; The University of Iowa
- Director of Graduate Studies, African American Studies; The University of Iowa
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Past Positions
- Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies; The University of Iowa
- Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology; University of Tennessee Knoxville
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Education
- Ph.D. in Sociology, Duke University
- M.A. in Sociology, Duke University
- B.A. in Urban Studies (with honors), Vassar College