Robert E. Washington
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Office: Dalton Hall Room 200G

Office Hours:Mon 4:00-5:00
Extension: x5392
Professor Washington's Homepage.

Robert Washington entered graduate school in sociology, after two years in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, planning to concentrate on the problems of modernization in Central Asia and sub-Sahara Africa. His plans were altered, however, by political changes in Central Asia as well as by new intellectual interests and opportunities. These have been reflected in the diverse range of his research work: a pioneering sociological study of black American literature; the historical and ideological development of black American sociology; knowledge about AIDS and safe-sex practices in Kenya; government corruption in African nations; urban black American crime; race-ethnic relations; and sociology of sports.

His current research projects include completing a study of color prejudice among Africans; writing several articles, derived from ethnographic data, about deviant survival strategies and social order in Kenyan cities; and co-authoring a book on the sociology of sports for Pine Forge Press. His teaching complements his research interests. He teaches a senior seminar on the sociology of culture, which explores the role of social influences and ideology on literature, movies, advertising, and media. He also teaches Classical Social Theory, Social Deviance, Economics and Sociology of Urban Black America, East African Political and Cultural Development, Race-Ethnic Relations, and Sociology of Sport. In addition to being a member of the sociology department, he is a faculty participant in the Bryn Mawr College Africana Program. Over the years of his research work in Africa, he has sometimes taken student interns to Kenya, where they have worked on summer research projects, which they subsequently developed into senior theses. He has held the position of United States-South Africa Leadership Fellow. He has also been a Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi. He is currently on the advisory editorial board of the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

Please send any questions or comments to Robert Washington.