Race in the US: the State of Race Relations (1 of 3)

Peter Cha, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, hosts a Henry Center dialogue with Michael Emerson, Alvin Sanders and Peter Hong, who explore how racial prejudices have diminished in the United States in the last years, but at the same time, the social differences are increasing.

Biography

Michael Emerson (Ph.D., Sociology, 1991, University of North Carolina) teaches courses in race and ethnic relations, religion, urban sociology, poverty and justice, and research methods at Rice University. Emerson’s recent research interests include race in shaping social action in the United States, focusing on health, residential segregation, and on the institution of religion. Publications in this area include Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford University Press, 2000), named the 2001 Distinguished Book of the Year by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States (Princeton University Press, 2006). Emerson currently directs the Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity (PS-ARE), and is the co-director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Other areas of research interest include urban growth, development, inequality, and urban life.