Informing Theory from Practice and Applied Research

Editors' introduction: Patricia Gurin grew up in southern Indiana where citizens split in support of the South and the North during the Civil War, and where the Ku Klux Klan was founded. After graduating from Northwestern University, she worked with the American Friends Service Committee (the social action voice of the Quakers). Later, after earning her PhD in social psychology at the University of Michigan, she (with Edgar Epps) conducted a study of students attending historically Black colleges, focusing on how the vast majority integrated collective and individual achievements, worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and stayed in college at the same time. That work initiated her life‐long interest in personal and group identity. Most recently, Gurin presented expert testimony in the 2003 Supreme Court cases on affirmative action and the use of race in college admissions decisions. This social science evidence, providing strong support for the compelling interest for diversity in higher education, was widely cited in the majority opinion favoring race‐conscious admission policies. Gurin brings this rich activist scholarship to her commentary and discusses the promise of practice and applied research for informing theory. She traces her own professional biography, one that evolved from being a researcher (using primarily national surveys) and teacher (primarily large lecture courses) to becoming intimately involved in teaching through interactive, small group learning communities. Gurin brings to light contributions from the articles that converge on theorizing about the social context such that the theorizing can take into account differences rather than be applied universally

Affirmative action · Context (archaeology · Diversity (politics · Political science · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · Supreme court · Critical Race Theory in Education · History · Law · Psychology · Service-Learning and Community Engagement · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Work

• Racial Attitudes in the 1990s

  Jack Martin, Steven A Tuch•Racial Attitudes in the 1990s•1997

  Add to list

• Beyond the Contact Hypothesis

  Marilynn B Brewer, Norman Miller•Groups in contact•1984

  Add to list

• Improving Intergroup Relations

  Walter G Stephan, Walter Stephan et al.•Improving Intergroup Relations•2001

  Add to list

• Getting to the What, How , and Why of Diversity on Campus

  Open Access•Patricia Gurin, Biren A Nagda•Educational Researcher•2006

  Add to list

• Intergroup Bias

  Miles Hewstone, M Rubin et al.•Annual Review of Psychology•2002

  Add to list