Edgar Epps

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Professor

Edgar Epps came to the UWM School of Education following a distinguished career as professor of urban education at the University of Chicago. His interests in sociology, social stratification and social mobility led him to investigate the role of education in social mobility. He studies education from the sociologist's viewpoint, rather than the educator's viewpoint. Epps has a longstanding research interest in race, class and educational opportunity, including minority students' access to higher education. He is also interested in how desegregation is playing out in urban school districts, as well as the effects of vouchers, magnet schools and charter schools on urban education. Prior to his tenure at the University of Chicago, Epps was director of the Division of Behavioral Science Research and chair of the Division of Social Sciences at Tuskegee University. He has also served on faculties of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Florida A&M. Epps has written extensively and received many honors, including the DuBois, Johnson, Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association, the W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Lecture Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Giant in Science Award from the Quality Education for Minorities Mathematics, Science and Engineering Network.