Mary C. Waters

Mary Catherine Waters (born 1957) is an American sociologist, demographer and author. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology and the PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Waters chaired the 2015 National Research Council Panel on The Integration of Immigrants into American Society. As of August 2023, Waters became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Sociology.

Career Waters earned her B.A. in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1978. She went on to earn her first M.A. in Demography in 1981 and her second M.A. in 1983 from the University of California at Berkeley, along with her PhD in Sociology in 1986. the John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology and (as of 2018) the PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences. She examines the formation and measurement of race and identity and has testified before Congress and worked with the United States census on its framing of measures of racial and ethnic identity. She is the principal investigator in a longitudinal study of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on African-American single mothers from New Orleans.

Waters has written or edited at least 13 books, She is noted for her concept of ethnic option, according to which the children and descendants of immigrants have the option of choosing whether or not to identify with the ethnicity of their ancestors. Waters notes, however, that there are four specific factors which influence that choice: “knowledge about ancestors, surname, looks, and the relative rankings of the groups.” The term first appeared in her book Ethnic Options, Choosing Identities in America (1990).

Her book Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Ideas and American Realities (1999) won five scholarly awards. It has been described as "a deeply learned, richly empirical, and elegantly written tour de force" that appreciates the complexity of immigrant lives.

Waters chaired the 2015 NRC Panel on The Integration of Immigrants into American Society and co-edited the resulting 2016 book, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society.

Waters serves on the governing council of the National Academy of Sciences, and was appointed in 2023 to a committee that advises the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. As of August 2023, Waters became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Sociology.

Awards and honors 1993, Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 1999–2004, named "Harvard College Professor", Harvard University, an honor for excellence in teaching 2001, Mira Komarovsky Award, Eastern Sociological Society, for Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Ideas and American Realities. Harvard University Press. 2001. 2001, Award for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Population, American Sociological Association, for Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Ideas and American Realities. Harvard University Press. 2001. 2005, elected to the American Philosophical Society 2010, Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, American Sociological Association, for Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age. Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. 2010, elected to the National Academy of Sciences 2016, The Section on International Migration's Distinguished Career Award, American Sociological Association

Works Books

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