Carla O’Connor

University of Michigan

University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and Professor of Education

Carla O'Connor is University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and Professor of Education at the University of Michigan, where she also directs Wolverine Pathways, a free, year-round pre-collegiate program serving underrepresented youth in southeastern Michigan. A sociologist of education with expertise in African American achievement, cultural studies, and ethnographic methods, her work includes examinations of: how Black identity is constructed across multiple contexts and influences educational outcomes; how Black people's perceptions of opportunity vary within and across space and shape academic orientation; how Black educational resilience and vulnerability are structured by social and historical forces; and how the organization and culture of schools influence students' identities and outcomes. She is currently conducting research on race and the co-construction of family-school relations. Her work has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Sociology of Education, Review of Research in Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. She has co-edited or contributed to handbooks and edited volumes that contend with issues of race, identity, and educational access, and her research projects have been funded by the Spencer Foundation, W.T. Grant Foundation, National Academy of Education, and the National Science Foundation. She delivered the 2019 AERA Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture and is an American Educational Research Association Fellow. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University.