معرفی
Wendy D. Roth is a Professor of Sociology and former Chair of the Graduate Group in Sociology (2021-2024) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she joined the department in 2019 after teaching at the University of British Columbia. Her work focuses on the sociology of race, ethnicity, and immigration, with particular expertise in multiracial populations, intersections of race and genomics, and transnational processes.
Roth's research explores how social processes challenge racial and ethnic boundaries and transform classification systems. Her work examines immigration, interracial marriage, and genetic ancestry testing as key mechanisms that reshape racial concepts both for individuals and societies. She has conducted groundbreaking research on how genetic ancestry testing influences racial identity formation, conceptualizations of race, and racial interactions through a combination of qualitative interviews and randomized controlled trials.
Roth's scholarly output reveals a consistent focus on the multiple dimensions of race and how they diverge in contemporary society. Her publications demonstrate how racial self-identification, observed race, known ancestry, genetic ancestry, and phenotype increasingly diverge, challenging traditional survey methodologies and understandings of racial inequality. Her recent work has particularly emphasized the social impact of genetic ancestry testing, revealing complex patterns where test-takers selectively interpret results based on identity aspirations and social appraisals rather than accepting genetic determinism.
Scientific Awards:
- Killam Faculty Research Fellowship
- 2016 Early Investigator Award from the Canadian Sociological Association
- 2011 Oliver Cromwell Cox Article Award from the American Sociological Association
- 2007 American Sociological Association Outstanding Dissertation Award
- Isis Duarte Prize from the Haiti-Dominican Republic Section of the Latin American Studies Association
- Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award Honourable Mention
Roth has received significant research funding from organizations including the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Social Science Research and Humanities Council of Canada, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation Leadership Opportunities Fund. Her work on genetic ancestry testing has been particularly well-funded, supporting both qualitative interview studies with diverse test-takers and innovative randomized controlled trials examining causal impacts. Her research has important implications for understanding how genomic advances are reshaping social conceptions of race in everyday life.
