Dr. Camille Charles
Dr. Camille Charles

As part of the prestigious Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Lecture Series, Dr. Camille Charles, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will give a talk at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) next month about the social, racial and economic factors that influence a student’s college experience.

Charles will present a public lecture, entitled “The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America’s Selective Colleges and Universities,” on Tuesday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall (Room 2.604) of the Erik Jonsson Academic Building. A reception will immediately follow.

In her discussion, Charles will examine how social class status and racial residential segregation influence the early academic performance of college freshman, with an eye toward understanding the under-performance of African American and Latino students when compared to whites and Asians. Findings from her discussion are part of an upcoming book co-authored with Douglas S. Massey, Garvey F. Lundy and Mary J. Fisher.

Charles’ research interests are in the areas of race and ethnic relations, racial attitudes and inequality, urban poverty and inequality, racial residential segregation, black women in the labor market, minorities in higher education and racial identity, particularly as it pertains to people of mixed-race heritage.

A faculty member in the School of Sociology at Penn, Charles earned bachelor of arts degrees in communication studies and sociology from California State University, Sacramento, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining Penn, she taught at The Ohio State University and was a scholar in residence at Grinnell College in Iowa.

About the Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society

The Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society was established at UTD to study the impact of scientific discoveries and rapid technical change on society and share that information with the public and policymakers.

The center sponsors public lectures and seminars about societal concerns, and its research programs and invited speakers reflect a commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to achieving solutions to those problems. This exchange of ideas has been a driving force behind many of the philanthropic activities of Cecil Green, a founder of both Texas Instruments, Inc. and the research institute that became UTD, and his late wife, Ida.

More information about the contributions of Cecil and Ida Green is available via the center’s Web site, www.utdallas.edu/research/greenctr/, and in the Cecil and Ida Green archives, which is housed in the center.

All Green lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information about Charles’ lecture, please call (972) 883-2555.