NCID-1718
James Thomas
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Mississippi
Education/Degree:
1 Sociology (University of Missouri)
About
James M. Thomas (JT) is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi, and co-editor of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. JT is the author or co-author of four books, and over two dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and invited essays on the causes and consequences of race and racism both in America, and abroad. JT’s research has been funded by the American Sociological Association, the National Science Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation, and has been featured in popular media outlets like The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Pacific Standard. JT is deeply dedicated to public scholarship, regularly writing for popular outlets like The Mississippi Free Press, serving on the boards of non-profit organizations, and giving public lectures on race, racism, and inequality to academic and lay audiences alike.
Current Work
Broadly, my scholarship builds upon the rich tradition of racial formation theory by examining how race and racism are articulated within different social, cultural, historical, and political contexts. My scholarship is wide-ranging in its coverage: from comparative and historical analyses of racial formations in Western Europe and the United States, to theorizing the complex interplay between race, citizenship, and affect along the US-Mexico border; and from critical investigations of DEI initiatives on college campuses, to the intellectual history of W.E.B. Du Bois, which is the focus of my newest book, entitled The Souls of Jewish Folk.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Culture, Diversity regimes, organizational inequality, race, racism, whiteness, the US South