Fredrick Cornelius Harris is an American political scientist specializing in

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

politics. He is the Class of 1933 Professor of Political Science and former Dean of Faculty for Social Sciences 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 ...

. He also serves as Director of the Center on African-American Politics and Society at Columbia.

Biography

Harris received his B.A. from the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

and Ph.D. from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. He taught at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

from 1994 until joining the Columbia University faculty in 2007. Harris' research focuses on political participation, social movements, the intersection of race and religion and politics, and African American politics. Harris is a recipient of the

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program in the United States honors published Black writers worldwide for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization ...

for Nonfiction in 2013 for his book ''The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics''. Harris argued that

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

became the first African American President by denying that he was the candidate of

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

, thereby downplaying many of the social justice issues that are central to black political movements. Harris is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

and served as Vice President of the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...

. He was a visiting scholar at the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her re ...

between 1998 and 1999.

Works

* ''The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Fredrick C. Living people Columbia University faculty University of Rochester faculty University of Georgia alumni Northwestern University alumni American political scientists Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics