PhD. (1999), University of California, Berkeley
- Race and Ethnicity
- Urban Sociology
- Inequality/Stratification (Race, Class, & Gender)
- Social Policy
Eric S. Brown teaches courses about race and ethnicity, urban sociology, social inequality, and the sociology of social policy. He is the author of The Black Professional Middle Class: Race, Class, and Community in Post-Civil Rights Society (Routledge, 2014). This book explores the role of race, class, and the state in shaping the (trans)formation of two segments of the black professional middle class. The book and related articles are part of a project about what he has termed “racialized class formation,” which has shaped the development of the black middle class(es) in the post-civil rights era. He is currently working on two other projects. His current project focuses on the problem of “minority middle class formation” in Osaka, Japan. Although Japan is frequently described as a “homogenous” society, it is comprised of many minority groups. This includes historically “outcaste” Buraku people who navigate their status in Japanese society. This research has been supported with an Abe Fellowship through the Social Science Research Council. He is also developing a new project on the status of working class black men in the postindustrial economy.
Awards and Honors
Abe Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council for research project entitled, “Race, Caste, and Minority Middle Class Formation: The Cases of African Americans and Japanese Buraku People.” Research carried out between 2007-2009 with time spent in residence at Osaka University in Japan.
Eric S. Brown. “Changing Political Fortunes: Race, Class, and “Black Power” in the Rise and Fall of a Black Urban Regime in Oakland.” Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 24, 2016.
Eric S. Brown. The Black Professional Middle Class: Race, Class, and Community in Post-Civil Rights Society. New York and London: Routledge (2014).
Eric S. Brown. “Racialization in a Homogenous Society?: The Case of Buraku People in Japan” Asian Ethnicity, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2013.
David L. Brunsma. Eric S. Brown, and Peggy L. Placier. “Teaching Race at Historically White Colleges and Universities: Identifying the Walls of Whiteness.” Critical Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 5, 2013.
Eric S. Brown. “Racialized Class Formation: Black Professionals in the Post-Civil Rights Era.”Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 23, 2012.
Eric S. Brown. “The Black Professional Middle Class and the Black Community.” in Kenneth Kusmer and Joe Trotter, eds. African American Urban History: The Dynamics of Race, Class, and Gender Since World War II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Judith R. Blau and Eric S. Brown. “DuBois and Diasporic Identity: The Veil and the Unveiling Project.” Reprinted in Keri E. Iyall Smith and Patricia Leavy, eds. Hybrid Identities: Theoretical and Empirical Examinations. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Judith R. Blau and Eric S. Brown. “DuBois and Diasporic Identity: The Veil and the Unveiling Project.” Sociological Theory. July 2001.
Eric S. Brown. “Black Ghetto Formation in Oakland, 1852-1965: Social Closure and African American Community Development.” Research in Community Sociology. Vol. 9, 1998.