Eddie R. Cole is Professor of Education and History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), affiliated with the School of Education and Information Studies, where he serves as Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. He earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education and an M.S.Ed. in Student Affairs Administration from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a B.S. in Speech Communication from Tennessee State University. Cole joined UCLA in 2020 as Associate Professor in the Division of Higher Education and Organizational Change, following his tenure as Associate Professor of Higher Education and Affiliated Faculty of History at the College of William & Mary. His career includes distinguished fellowships such as the 2023-2024 Joy Foundation Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the 2018 Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the 2017 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader Award from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the 2015 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and others.

A historian of higher education, Cole’s research explores race and social movements on college campuses, systems of power, and the influence of universities on American society. His first book, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2020), garnered multiple honors including the 2022 Outstanding Publication Award from the American Educational Research Association Division J, the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the History of Education Society, the 2021 Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges & Universities, the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the 2021 Critics’ Choice Book Award from the American Educational Studies Association. He co-authored With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (University of North Carolina Press, 2025), recipient of the 2025 Readers’ Choice Award. Other key publications include articles such as “Little Kingdoms”: The Black College and the Gains and Losses of Desegregation (Journal of African American History, 2024), Black Higher Education: A Historiography of Perseverance and Triumph (Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 2024), and Race and Rhetoric: An Analysis of College Presidents’ Statements on Campus Racial Incidents (Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2017). Cole’s scholarship has appeared in The New York Times and Fortune; he contributes op-eds to TIME, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chronicle of Higher Education, and serves as expert commentator for CNN, BBC World News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN Book TV. He is a senior fellow at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy and a board member of the History of Education Society.

Professional Email: ercole@ucla.edu