Waverly Duck, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, received the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. The award is given annually by SSSI, an international professional organization of scholars interested in the study of social issues with an emphasis on identity, everyday practice, and language. The award is given for a book that represents an important contribution to the perspective of symbolic interaction. Dr. Duck shares the award with co-author Anne Warfield Rawls, a professor of sociology at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Dr. Duck was recognized for the book Tacit Racism (University of Chicago Press, 2020). The book examines the many ways in which racism is coded into the everyday social interactions of Americans.
Dr. Duck joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. His current research involves several projects focusing on gentrification, displacement, and food apartheid. He is also the author of No Way Out: Precarious Living in the Shadow of Poverty and Drug Dealing (University of Chicago Press, 2015).
Dr. Duck earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D., all from Wayne State University in Detroit. He then he held a three-year post-doctoral appointment at Yale University. Since joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Duck has held visiting appointments at the University of Wisconsin and Georgetown Univerity.