Camille Zubrinsky Charles Is 2023 Honoree of the Faculty Award of Merit

Camille Zubrinsky Charles, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences and a professor of sociology, Africana studies, and education, was selected as the 2023 honoree of the Faculty Award of Merit, presented by Penn Alumni. This award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to alumni education and engagement at Penn by sharing their unique scholarship work with the alumni community. Special emphasis is placed on a faculty member who goes above and beyond by engaging alumni with the University as their intellectual home and educating the faculty community about available alumni engagement opportunities and benefits of their participating.

Charles’s research interests are in the areas of racial inequality, racial identity, racial attitudes, intergroup relations, residential segregation, and higher education. She currently serves as Chair of the Department of Africana Studies and as Interim Director of the Center for Africana Studies. She is also Faculty Co-Director of Penn First Plus, the University’s initiative to support first-generation, low-income Penn students. Since 2006 she has served as Director of the Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen.

Charles is the author of Won’t You Be My Neighbor: Race, Class and Residence in Los Angeles and co-author of The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America’s Selective Colleges and Universities and Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities. Most recently, she coauthored Young, Gifted, and Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite.

Charles will receive the award at the Alumni Award of Merit Gala on November 3, 2023.