Research Focus
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My work is at the intersection of sociology of race and colonialism and sociology of culture and organizations. I explore the cultural production of racism and colonialism at U.S. educational organizations and use ethnographic and archival methodologies, along with relevant quantitative methods, to study how academic workers, such as faculty and staff, make cultural meanings of merit, diversity, and racism when distributing resources within an elite organizational field. My future research extends these investigations to consider how universities are sites for maintaining structural racism and colonialism, with a focus on university-neighborhood relations (mutual aid) and desegregating sociology. My work brings cultural analytical tools to study the production of racism and racial knowledge, while engaging critical theoretical approaches to question the emerging role of higher education in contemporary society.
Higher education serves as the empirical case for my work and my approach grounds higher education institutions within their histories of slavery and colonialism and their contemporary sociopolitical context. My scholarly record touches on various dimensions of higher education, such as the role of race-conscious admissions, university-community engagement, and the relationship between the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of race. A copy of my CV is available here for download (as of 10/2020). |
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PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed
Kaur, Harleen and prabhdeep singh kehal. (2020). Sikhs as Implicated Subjects in the United States: A Reflective Essay (ਵਿਚਾਰ) on Gurmat-Based Interventions in the Movement for Black Lives. Sikh Research Journal, 5(2):68-86. Available here.
kehal, prabhdeep singh and Cadence Willse. (2020). Institutional Type, Organizational Pathways, and Student Engagement: Deepening Student Engagement and the Benefit-Use Paradox in Formal Engagement Spaces. Journal of Community Engagement in Higher Education 12(1):50-65. Available here.
Willse, Cadence, kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Mathew Johnson. (2020). Social Innovation and Civic Engagement: A Critical Praxis for Engagement in Higher Education. In E. Mlyn, and A. M. McBride (Eds.), The Civic Mission of Higher Education: Connecting Social Innovation and Civic Engagement. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Available here.
kehal, prabhdeep singh, Garbes, Laura, and Kennedy, Michael D. (2019). Critical Sociology of Knowledge. In Lynette Spillman (Ed), Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press. Available here.
Under review
kehal, prabhdeep singh. What’s Merit Got To Do With It? Historicizing U.S Faculty Evaluations and Institutional Racism in the Elite U.S. Professoriate.
kehal, prabhdeep singh, Hirschman, Daniel, and Ellen Berrey. When Affirmative Action Disappears: Unexpected Patterns in Student Enrollments at Selective U.S. Institutions, 1990-2016. (Revise and Resubmit at Sociology of Race and Ethnicity). Draft available here on SocArXiv.
kehal, prabhdeep singh. Sociology of Education Hesitant: Theorizing An Historic Structure of Educating in the U.S.
Reviewed Public Sociology
kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Michael D. Kennedy. 2020. Graduate Education and Academic Labor for Graduate Students during the Pandemic. ASA Footnotes, 12.
kehal, prabhdeep singh. 2018. “Hitting the Wall: It’s Unfair to Expect Graduate Students to Shoulder All the Diversity Work.” Conditionally Accepted, Inside Higher Ed.
Kennedy, Michael, kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Laura Garbes. 2018. Excellence, reflexivity, and racism: On sociology’s nuclear contradiction and its abiding crisis. History, Theory and Sociology in an Age of Crisis, Comparative and Historical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
please feel free to reach out to me if you have difficulty obtaining a copy of publication materials
Kaur, Harleen and prabhdeep singh kehal. (2020). Sikhs as Implicated Subjects in the United States: A Reflective Essay (ਵਿਚਾਰ) on Gurmat-Based Interventions in the Movement for Black Lives. Sikh Research Journal, 5(2):68-86. Available here.
kehal, prabhdeep singh and Cadence Willse. (2020). Institutional Type, Organizational Pathways, and Student Engagement: Deepening Student Engagement and the Benefit-Use Paradox in Formal Engagement Spaces. Journal of Community Engagement in Higher Education 12(1):50-65. Available here.
Willse, Cadence, kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Mathew Johnson. (2020). Social Innovation and Civic Engagement: A Critical Praxis for Engagement in Higher Education. In E. Mlyn, and A. M. McBride (Eds.), The Civic Mission of Higher Education: Connecting Social Innovation and Civic Engagement. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Available here.
kehal, prabhdeep singh, Garbes, Laura, and Kennedy, Michael D. (2019). Critical Sociology of Knowledge. In Lynette Spillman (Ed), Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press. Available here.
Under review
kehal, prabhdeep singh. What’s Merit Got To Do With It? Historicizing U.S Faculty Evaluations and Institutional Racism in the Elite U.S. Professoriate.
kehal, prabhdeep singh, Hirschman, Daniel, and Ellen Berrey. When Affirmative Action Disappears: Unexpected Patterns in Student Enrollments at Selective U.S. Institutions, 1990-2016. (Revise and Resubmit at Sociology of Race and Ethnicity). Draft available here on SocArXiv.
kehal, prabhdeep singh. Sociology of Education Hesitant: Theorizing An Historic Structure of Educating in the U.S.
Reviewed Public Sociology
kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Michael D. Kennedy. 2020. Graduate Education and Academic Labor for Graduate Students during the Pandemic. ASA Footnotes, 12.
kehal, prabhdeep singh. 2018. “Hitting the Wall: It’s Unfair to Expect Graduate Students to Shoulder All the Diversity Work.” Conditionally Accepted, Inside Higher Ed.
Kennedy, Michael, kehal, prabhdeep singh, and Laura Garbes. 2018. Excellence, reflexivity, and racism: On sociology’s nuclear contradiction and its abiding crisis. History, Theory and Sociology in an Age of Crisis, Comparative and Historical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
please feel free to reach out to me if you have difficulty obtaining a copy of publication materials
Presentations (Invited and Conferences)
2020
"Merit as Race Talk: The Ontological Constriction of Merit Knowledge." Manuscript presented at:
2019
“To Fulfill These Rights: Political Struggle Over Affirmative Action and Open Admissions by Amaka Okechukwu.” Author Meets Critic, Association of Black Sociologists, New York, New York, August, 2019.
2018
“Racial Excavation: Racializing Organizations and Organizing Race.” Manuscript presented at Du Boisian Sociology: Critical Insights for Theorizing Race and Ethnicity, American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2018.
“The Decline of the Diversity Imperative? Enrollment Trends Among Colleges Voluntarily Abandoning Race-Conscious Admissions.” Manuscript presented at Institutional Change in Higher Education, American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2018.
“Excellence, Reflexivity, and Racism: On Sociology's Nuclear Contradiction and Its Abiding Crisis.” Manuscript presented at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University, Providence, RI, April, 2018.
“Fleeting Access: Racialized and Class Exclusion through Higher Education Enrollment Management.” Invited Lecture at Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, February, 2018.
2017
"Race and Merit: Racialized Exclusion from Prestige in Higher Education Enrollment, 2004-2013." Paper presented at student workshop series, Brown University Department of Sociology, Providence, RI, October, 2017.
"Something in the Way We Race: Racial Order and Institutional Logics." Manuscript presented at
“Who Gets to Walk the Straight Line? Racial Differences in the Accumulation of Structural Advantage/Disadvantage in Education.” Manuscript presented at Population Association of America, Chicago, IL, April, 2017.
“Minoritized Identity Formation: Students’ Experiences with Diversity and Inclusion.” Presented at Association for Psychological Science, Boston, MA, May, 2017.
“Reclaiming Activist Sikhi: An Excavated Perspective.” Invited Lecture for Speaking of Sikhs Lecture Series, Sikhs of Princeton, Princeton University, March, 2017.
2016
"(Re)Imprinting Race into Organizations: A Theoretical Framing of Racial Imprinting." Manuscript presented at student workshop series, Brown University Department of Sociology, Providence, RI, April, 2016.
2015
“A path to dialogue: Graduate students of color and liberating education”, Gramlich Showcase, University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy, March, 2015.
“Educational and social pathways: A Critical Race Theory exploration of California Sikh youth”, Jakara Sikholars, Stanford University Center for South Asia &, Feb, 2015.
2014
“Institutionally stratified degree attainment in Michigan's postsecondary education”, Division of Accountability Services & Educational Services, MI Dept. of Ed, Aug 2014.
"Merit as Race Talk: The Ontological Constriction of Merit Knowledge." Manuscript presented at:
- American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 2020.
- American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA, April, 2020. [cancelled due to public health concerns]
- Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA, February, 2020.
2019
“To Fulfill These Rights: Political Struggle Over Affirmative Action and Open Admissions by Amaka Okechukwu.” Author Meets Critic, Association of Black Sociologists, New York, New York, August, 2019.
2018
“Racial Excavation: Racializing Organizations and Organizing Race.” Manuscript presented at Du Boisian Sociology: Critical Insights for Theorizing Race and Ethnicity, American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2018.
“The Decline of the Diversity Imperative? Enrollment Trends Among Colleges Voluntarily Abandoning Race-Conscious Admissions.” Manuscript presented at Institutional Change in Higher Education, American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2018.
“Excellence, Reflexivity, and Racism: On Sociology's Nuclear Contradiction and Its Abiding Crisis.” Manuscript presented at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University, Providence, RI, April, 2018.
“Fleeting Access: Racialized and Class Exclusion through Higher Education Enrollment Management.” Invited Lecture at Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, February, 2018.
2017
"Race and Merit: Racialized Exclusion from Prestige in Higher Education Enrollment, 2004-2013." Paper presented at student workshop series, Brown University Department of Sociology, Providence, RI, October, 2017.
"Something in the Way We Race: Racial Order and Institutional Logics." Manuscript presented at
- W.E.B. Du Bois and the Color Line in the 21st Century: Continuity, Challenges, and New Directions, Social Theory Forum, Boston, MA, March, 2017.
- Mini-conference on Race and Organizations, Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA, February, 2017.
“Who Gets to Walk the Straight Line? Racial Differences in the Accumulation of Structural Advantage/Disadvantage in Education.” Manuscript presented at Population Association of America, Chicago, IL, April, 2017.
“Minoritized Identity Formation: Students’ Experiences with Diversity and Inclusion.” Presented at Association for Psychological Science, Boston, MA, May, 2017.
“Reclaiming Activist Sikhi: An Excavated Perspective.” Invited Lecture for Speaking of Sikhs Lecture Series, Sikhs of Princeton, Princeton University, March, 2017.
2016
"(Re)Imprinting Race into Organizations: A Theoretical Framing of Racial Imprinting." Manuscript presented at student workshop series, Brown University Department of Sociology, Providence, RI, April, 2016.
2015
“A path to dialogue: Graduate students of color and liberating education”, Gramlich Showcase, University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy, March, 2015.
“Educational and social pathways: A Critical Race Theory exploration of California Sikh youth”, Jakara Sikholars, Stanford University Center for South Asia &, Feb, 2015.
2014
“Institutionally stratified degree attainment in Michigan's postsecondary education”, Division of Accountability Services & Educational Services, MI Dept. of Ed, Aug 2014.
