Walter Allen
· Distinguished Professor, Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles · Education
Active 1944–2024
About
Walter Allen is a Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology, and African American Studies at UCLA, holding the Allan Murray Cartter Chair in Higher Education. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, a postdoctoral study in Psycho-Social Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a B.A. in Sociology from Beloit College. His research focuses on higher education, international and comparative education, organizational change, race and ethnic studies. Allen has made significant contributions to understanding the experiences of African American students in higher education, examining issues of diversity, equity, and access, and exploring the social and organizational dynamics within educational institutions. Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the Dr. John Hope Franklin Award, membership in the National Academy of Education, and recognition from the American Educational Research Association for his distinguished research career.
Research topics
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Medical education
- Medicine
- Geography
- Physics
- Psychology
- Pedagogy
- Law
- Astronomy
Selected publications
Way Too Much Fun: Career and Life Reflections
Higher education · 2024-01-01
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingState University of New York Press eBooks · 2023-07-01 · 1 citations
book-chapterSenior authorSUNY Press eBooks · 2023-07-01
book-chapterSenior authorWay Too Much Fun: Career and Life Reflections
Higher education · 2023-11-13
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingPhilosophy and Theory in Higher Education · 2023
Senior authorCorresponding- Political Science
- Sociology
- Political Science
Abstract Using CRT concepts of whiteness as property and interest convergence we show how opportunities for doctoral study are “raced and restricted.” The 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education promised universal access and choice through a tripartite system (California Community Colleges/California State University (CSU)/University of California (UC)). We contend that this system of higher education has perpetuated the apartheid of knowledge by structurally limiting the doctoral trajectories of CSU undergraduate alumni. Constraining opportunities for knowledge production to students with access to whiteness while directing CSU undergraduate alumni into the workforce further reproduces race-ethnic inequality.This unusual case study focuses on the Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR), a summer training program that has promoted research careers among master’s level students and professionals since 1999. We analyzed alumni survey responses and doctoral statuses to identify CSU undergraduate alumni’s barriers to and facilitators for matriculation into doctoral programs. By increasing participants’ access to networks and resources and leveraging motivations for racial health equity, MTPCCR connected CSU undergraduate alumni to pathways to the doctorate. To disrupt the apartheid of knowledge, more pathways to knowledge production for social change must be mapped out for undergraduate alumni from teaching universities where first-generation students of color are concentrated.
Issues of production and utilization of knowledge: multiple uses of knowledge
Elsevier eBooks · 2022-11-18
book-chapterSenior authorCorrespondingHidden in Plain Sight: Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America
Quaderni di Sociologia · 2020 · 13 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Political Science
- Geography
- Political Science
Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois held different visions for Black Higher Education. Should college prepare “Talented Tenth” leaders to advocate for full Black equality or teach vocational skills for separate economic development? Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play significant roles in American culture and society. HBCUs exert outsized influence producing notable Black scholars, political leaders, professionals, and media stars. However, Anti- Black Racism and White Supremacist attitudes minimize or dismiss these important contributions. We critically examine HBCUs in the US higher education landscape from 1976 to 2015 to overview Black college student attendance and graduation patterns. In 2018, HBCUs (3 percent of US universities) awarded 13 percent of BA degrees, 6 percent of MAs and 11 percent of doctorates earned by African Americans. The percent of total degrees HBCUs awarded Black students declined from 1977: 35 percent BAs, 21 percent MAs and 11 percent Doctorates. Emerging from the fiery furnace of American Slavery, Jim Crow Racism and Racial Oppression, HBCUs provided higher education opportunities to lift the Black community and advance American society. HBCUs are a national treasure that must be preserved and strengthened by dismantling systemic inequities in attitudes, funding, resources, and legislation.
Climate warming causes declines in crop yields and lowers school attendance rates in Central Africa
eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 2020-12-01
articleAlthough a number of recent studies suggest that climate associated shifts in agriculture are affecting social and economic systems, there have been relatively few studies of these effects in Africa. Such studies would be particularly useful in Central Africa, where the impacts of climate warming are predicted to be high but coincide with an area with low adaptive capacity. Focusing on plantain (Musa paradisiaca), we assess whether recent climate change has led to reduced yields. Analysis of annual temperature between 1950 and 2013 indicated a 0.8°C temperature increase over this 63-year period - a trend that is also observed in monthly temperatures in the last twenty years. From 1991 to 2011, there was a 43% decrease in plantain productivity in Central Africa, which was explained by shifts in temperature (R2=0.68). This decline may have reduced rural household wealth and decreased parental investment in education. Over the past two decades, there was a six month decrease in the duration of school attendance, and the decline was tightly linked to plantain yield (R2=0.82). By 2080, mean annual temperature is expected to increase at least 2°C in Central Africa, and our models predict a concomitant decrease of 39% in plantain yields and 51% in education outcomes, relative to the 1991 baseline. These predictions should be seen as a call-to-action for policy interventions such as farmer training programs to enhance the adaptive capacity of food production systems to mitigate impacts on rural income and education.
New York University Press eBooks · 2020-12-31
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingCollege Is …: Focusing on the College Knowledge of Gang-Associated Latino Young Men
Urban Education · 2020 · 15 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Sociology
- Political Science
- Pedagogy
Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined “why” gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what college knowledge they possess. We found the students have aspirations to pursue postsecondary education degrees or credentials; however, they receive minimal information and support from school personnel to build the needed college-going behaviors and information to plan and prepare for higher education.
Frequent coauthors
- 25 shared
Grace Carroll
- 25 shared
Daniel Solóranzo
University of California, Berkeley
- 13 shared
Charles E. Daye
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- 13 shared
Robert T. Teranishi
University of California, Los Angeles
- 12 shared
Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth
University of California, Irvine
- 11 shared
A. T. Panter
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- 11 shared
Linda F. Wightman
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- 10 shared
Kimberly A. Griffin
Awards & honors
- Dr. John Hope Franklin Award (2020)
- National Academy of Education Member (2018)
- AERA Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Awa…
- Career Achievement Award, Recognized for career contribution…
- AERA Fellows Award, Distinguished research career, American…
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