Rate My Professor Deirdre Royster

Deirdre A. Royster is an associate professor of sociology at New York University. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1996, an M.A. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1991, and a B.S. in sociology and psychology from Virginia Tech in 1987. Royster's professional career includes serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1996 to 2000. In 2002, she joined the College of William & Mary as an associate professor of sociology and subsequently chaired the department. Her research examines racial inequality in labor markets, urban political economy, work and labor issues, and responsive public policy.

Royster's seminal publication, Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs (University of California Press, 2003), draws on ethnographic data from two cohorts of vocational high school graduates in Baltimore to demonstrate how white networks provide access to stable blue-collar employment for white men while excluding equally qualified Black men. This work received the 2004 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Her research has been funded by the American Sociological Association, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. Royster's contributions have profoundly influenced sociological understandings of social capital, opportunity hoarding, and persistent racial disparities in employment outcomes. She participated as a fellow in the ASA Minority Fellowship Program and received a Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.