William E. Cross Jr.

Professor of Social-Personality Psychology, City University of New York

 

William E. Cross, Jr., is one of America's leading theorist and researchers on black identity development across the life span.  His text titled Shades of Black (Temple University Press, 1991) is considered required reading for students and scholars interested in the study in African American identity.  Over the course of his career, Dr. Cross has held positions in Psychology and Africana Studies at Cornell University, Penn State University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Currently he is Professor and Head of the Doctoral Program in Social-Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center for the City University of NY and he is part of the African American Studies Certificate Program.  His research interests include the structure and everyday functions of black identity; identity content (nationalist; bicultural & multicultural) as the primary predictor of identity consequences in everyday life; general personality and reference group orientation as independent predictors of differential self-concept levels; the history of black achievement motivation (BAM) from slavery to the present; the history of black education from slavery through the late 1940s.  

 

These offerings are being brought to Oregon by a partnership between the OSU, PSU, and the community. The OSU partners are the Convocations and Lectures Committee, and the Graduate School of Education. The PSU partners are; the Bilingual Teacher Pathway program, in the Graduate School of Education; the Provosts Office; the Center for Academic Excellence; The Multicultural Center; and the Training & Development Program, in Continuing Education, School of Extended Studies. The community partners are the Intercultural Communication Institute, the National Association for Multicultural Education, and Reflections Coffee & Books.