Elijah Anderson

Who is Elijah Anderson?

Elijah Anderson is an American sociologist. He holds the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professorship in Sociology at Yale University, where he teaches and directs the Urban Ethnography Project. Anderson is one of the nation’s leading urban ethnographers and cultural theorists. He received his B.A. from Indiana University, his M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D from Northwestern University, where he was mentored by Howard S. Becker.

Before he joined the Yale faculty in July 2007, Anderson served for many years as the Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Wharton School; in 2008, he was accorded the Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Previously, he worked as an assistant professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College. In 1975, he joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty where he rose to associate professor in 1981, and to full professor in 1988. He was appointed to the Max and Heidi Berry Term Chair in the Social Sciences in 1989, to the Charles and William L. Day Professorship in 1991, and then to Distinguished Professor in 2001. He has also served as Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College, Princeton University, and Ecole des Etudes Hautes en Science Sociales in Paris, France.