Constitution Series: Equality And Justice For All
HOW STEREOTYPES AFFECT US AND WHAT CAN WE DO
Claude M. Steele, Ph.D.
Claude M. Steele, Ph.D. is an acclaimed American social psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. He is best known for his work on stereotype threat and its application to minority student academic performance.
The author of Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, Dr. Steele summarizes years of research on stereotype threat and the under performance of minority students in higher education.
He holds B.A. in Psychology from Hiram College, an M.A. in Social Psychology from Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and Statistical Psychology from Ohio State University.
Dr. Steele was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Board, the National Academy of Education, and the American Philosophical Society. He currently serves as the Board Chair of one of the oldest U.S. foundations, the Russell Sage Foundation, founded in 1907 for the “improvement of social and living conditions in the United States,” as well as the boards of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Scripps College. Dr. is a Fellow for both the American Institutes for Research and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and serves on the Advisory Council of the MIT Media Lab.
Born to African-American parents Ruth (a social worker) and Shelby (a truck driver) in Chicago, he recalls his family, including his twin brother Shelby Steele and two other siblings, as being deeply interested in social issues and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. His father pushed him to achieve security in the context of securing employment, but Claude construed achievement as success in education. Dr. Steele and his late wife Dorothy had been known to collaborate on projects dedicated to prejudice in American society and minority student achievement. His twin brother, Shelby Steele, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
He has served in several major academic leadership positions as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UC Berkeley, the I. James Quillen Dean for the School of Education at Stanford University, and as the 21st Provost of Columbia University. Professor Steele also holds Honorary Doctorates from Yale University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, DePaul University and Claremont Graduate University.
Mi-Ai Parrish | Guest Moderator
- Board of Directors, Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy
- ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism Sue Clark-Johnson Professor in Media Innovation and Leadership
- Managing Director of ASU Media Enterprise
- CEO and President of MAP Strategies Group
- Former President and Publisher of USA Today Network Arizona, The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com
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