Deborah Carr
Affiliated Faculty, IGS
Professor of Sociology and Director, Center for Innovation in Social Science
- Education
- PhD, Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MS, Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
BA, Human Relations, Connecticut College - carrds@bu.edu
Deborah Carr, affiliated faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is a Professor of Sociology and inaugural director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science, established in September 2021. She is a life course sociologist who uses survey data and quantitative methods to study social factors linked with health and well-being in later life. She has written extensively on death and dying, bereavement, family relationships over the life course, and the stigma associated with health conditions including obesity and disability.
Her current projects focus on the economic consequences of marital statuses and transitions over the life course; the nature and sources of human flourishing; and life course influences on end-of-life preparations.
She has published more than 100 articles and chapters, and several books including Golden Years? Social Inequality in Later Life (Russell Sage, 2019) and Worried Sick: How Stress Hurts Us and How to Bounce Back (Rutgers University Press, 2014), as well as several co-authored textbooks including Introduction to Sociology and The Art and Science of Social Research (both with W. W. Norton). Her new book Aging in America will be published in 2023 (University of California-Press). She is also co-editor of the Handbook of Aging & Social Sciences, 9th ed. (Elsevier, 2021). She was editor-in-chief of Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (2015-20), is principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), and co-investigator of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey. She will serve as editor-in-chief of Journal of Health and Social Behavior during the 2023-2025 term.
Dr. Carr is on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America, and has served as chair of the sections on Aging & the Life Course and Medical Sociology of the American Sociological Association. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a member of the honorary Sociological Research Association, and the recipient of the 2022 Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award of the ASA Aging & Life Course section. Her work is featured in national media including The New York Times, USA Today, public television, and other sources.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Twitter: @DeborahCarr723