Alondra Nelson was named dean of social sciences at Columbia University in New York City. Dr. Nelson is professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the university. She will become dean on July 1.
Professor Nelson is a sociologist, who was written extensively about the intersection of science, technology, medicine, and inequality. She joined the faculty at Columbia in 2009 after teaching in the departments of African American studies and sociology at Yale University from 2002 to 2009.
Dr. Nelson is the author of the award-winning book, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination (University of Minnesota Press, 2011). She is also an editor of Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History (Rutgers University Press, 2012) and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (New York University Press, 2001).
Dr. Nelson is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at San Diego. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University.
