Aldon Douglas Morris, biography

Aldon Morris is the Leon Forrest Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Black Studies at Northwestern University. His interests include race, social inequality, religion, politics, theory, and social movements. Morris is the author of The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement which won numerous awards including the 1986 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award of the American Sociological Association. He is co-editor of both Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (yale) and Opposition Consciousness (Chicago). He has published widely on numerous topics. His book, The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology, published in 2015 by University of California Press, has received a dozen awards including the R.R. Hawkins Award and Prose Award from the Association of American Publishers. Morris was a consultant for the award-winning film, “Eyes on the Prize.” A documentary, “The Scholar Affirmed,” on Morris’ work and life, was released in 2018. Morris has lectured nationally and internationally.
In 2006, Morris was the recipient of the Association of Black Sociologists Joseph Himes award for Lifetime Achievement for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship. In 2009, Morris was awarded the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award for a lifetime of research, scholarship, and teaching from the American Sociological Association. Morris was the 2013 recipient of the Association of Black Sociologists’ A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring, and Service. In 2020, Morris won the W. E. B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, the highest award of the American Sociological Association. In 2019, Morris was elected President of the American Sociological Association. In 2023, Morris was elected member of the America Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Morris is a former Chair of Sociology, Director of Asian American Studies and Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University.