Ranita Ray, Ph.D.
Writer & Sociologist
Writer & Sociologist
I am an author, ethnographer, and sociologist. I research, write, and speak primarily about teacher racism; K-12 schools as hostile institutions; gendered racial violence in education; social mobility and racialized poverty; and reproductive justice. I am currently Associate Professor and Baca Zinn Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico.
My 2018 book THE MAKING OF A TEENAGE SERVICE CLASS: POVERTY AND MOBILITY IN AN AMERICAN CITY won the following accolades:
My next book, VIOLENT SCHOOLS, is under contract with St. Martin's Press/Macmillan. The book is an unflinching exposé of the American public education system’s indifference toward Black, brown, immigrant, queer, and economically marginalized children and the "slow violence" that fashions schools into hostile work and learning environments, based on three-year immersion in one of the nation's largest school district combined with interviews, and archival research. You can read a piece in Slate based on this research here. My work has received awards, honors, and funding from American Sociological Association, Society For the Study of Social Problems, Pacific Sociological Association, National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network. In 2019-2020 I was a NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. I serve on editorial boards of Sociology of Education and Qualitative Sociology. CONTACT ME: Email: ranitaray@unm.edu Twitter: @ranitaray1 |