Bruce Western
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bruce Prichart Western (born July 1, 1964) is an Australian-born American sociologist and a
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. In 2023, he was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.


Early life and education

Western was born in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, to a white native Australian father who taught at the
University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
, and a Thai
international student International students or exchange students, also known as foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their secondary or tertiary education in a country other than their own. In 2022, there were over 6.9 million international ...
mother. His father was John Western. He became interested in inequality in Australia growing up in
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, where he, his brother, and their mother stood out as racial minorities. He received his B.A. in government with honors from the University of Queensland in 1987. That year, Western then became a student in the doctoral program in sociology at the
Graduate Center, CUNY The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...
, with the intention of both working with sociologist
Iván Szelényi Iván Szelényi (born April 17, 1938 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-American sociologist, as of 2010 the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi. Biography He is the son of Gusztáv Szelényi, an entomologist and Julianna Csa ...
and fulfilling a long-held dream of living in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Szelenyi left the Graduate Center in 1988, and Western followed him to the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
, where he subsequently received his master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from in 1990 and 1993, respectively.


Career

After receiving his PhD, Western taught at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
for fourteen years. He taught at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
from 2007 to 2018, where he was a professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the director of the Kennedy School's Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy, as well as director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and faculty chair of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard's
John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
. In 2018 he moved to
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, where he is professor of sociology and co-director of the Justice Lab.


Research


Prisons and mass incarceration

Originally, Western's research pertained to organized labor, but he became interested in researching prisons and
mass incarceration Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated ...
, in his words, "almost by accident" after talking to a colleague about the United States' use of prisons to manage disadvantaged populations. As of 2008, he had written or co-written more than a dozen articles about prisons, as well as a book (''Punishment and Inequality in America'') on the same topic. In ''Punishment and Inequality in America'', originally published in 2006, he concludes that "mass imprisonment has erased many of the 'gains to African American citizenship hard won by the civil rights movement.'" In a 2010 study, Western and fellow sociologist Becky Pettit outlined the way in which, according to them, poverty increases prison populations and these populations in turn increase poverty. Other studies co-authored by Pettit and Western have found that on average, incarceration reduces annual salaries by about 40% for the average male former prisoner, and reduces hourly wages by, on average, 11% and annual employment by nine weeks. In 2009, with Devah Pager and Naomi Sugie, he found African American job applicants with a criminal record were less likely to receive a call back after an interview than white applicants with a criminal record. As of 2013, Western was studying what happens to prisoners after they are released, and has interviewed the subjects of the study in person, which has, according to Elizabeth Gudrais, "put a human face on the statistics and dashed preconceived notions in the process." In 2015, he published a study based on these interviews, showing that 40% of the recently incarcerated prisoners he interviewed in the
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
area had witnessed a killing when they were children. Another finding of his research on these released prisoners was that most of them immediately return to poverty upon their release.


Unions

He has also researched the relationship between the decline of unions and increasing income inequality, and has found that the former accounted for a third of the increase in income inequality among male workers.


Honors and awards

In 2005, while on the faculty of the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of c ...
at Princeton, Western received a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
for his project, "The Growth and Consequences of American Inequality." His book ''Punishment and Inequality in America'' won both the 2008 Michael J. Hindelang Book Award from the
American Society of Criminology The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization based on the campus of Ohio State University whose members focus on the study of crime and delinquency. It aims to grow and disseminate scholarly research, with members wo ...
and the 2007 Albert J. Reiss, Jr. Distinguished Scholarship Award from the
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
. Western was inducted into the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 2015.


Personal life

Western lives in New York, New York.


References


External links


Faculty page
at the John F. Kennedy School of Government website
Faculty page
at the Harvard University Department of Sociology website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Western, Bruce Australian emigrants to the United States Living people American sociologists Harvard Kennedy School faculty University of Queensland alumni CUNY Graduate Center alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Princeton University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1964 births Russell Sage Foundation Columbia University faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society