James Witte

James Witte is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University and Director of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR). He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1991) and has prior affiliations with Clemson University, Northwestern University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on immigration, digital sociology, social inequality, and climate change education. Notable projects include the Institute for Immigration Research’s studies on immigrant professionals and the NSF-funded Digital Archive Project digitizing sociological manuscripts.

Education: Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University (1991). Previous academic roles include postdoctoral fellowships at the Carolina Population Center and lecturer positions at UNC Chapel Hill.

Research Interests: Explores the intersection of technology and society, including online survey methodologies and social media analysis (e.g., Twitter data on immigration). He also investigates climate change communication through TV weathercasts and the socioeconomic integration of immigrants. Recent work includes analyzing NBA NFT transactions to study valuation of immigrant athletes.

Grants & Awards: Recipient of NSF funding for the Digital Archive Project and U.S. State Department support for the Karachi partnership. His book The Normal Bar (2013) co-authored with Northrup and Schwartz reached the New York Times bestseller list.

Advising: Supervised six doctoral dissertations addressing topics like study abroad marketing, hyper-nationalism, climate change belief, and minority student performance in STEM.

Labs & Initiatives: Leads the IIR, which launched “Immigrants, Athletes, and Inclusion,” and collaborates with the American Sociological Association on digitizing sociological archives.