Duke W. Austin, PhD Faculty Profile
Duke W. Austin, PhD
Professor
Department of Sociology
- E-mail: duke.austin@csueastbay.edu
- Office: MI 3093
- Office Hours: Wednesdays, 10am-12noon. Use "Home Page" link below to schedule an appointment.
- Vitae: View my CV
- Home Page: https://csueb.campus.eab.com/pal/Vw2yFlFtbn
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Dr. Duke Austin is a Professor of Sociology at California State University, East Bay, where he also serves Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, and previously, Department Chair. He is the 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Contributor to Community Engagement and the 2016 recipient of the Outstanding Scholar on Issues of Diversity, Social Justice, and Multiculturalism. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow for the Urban Ethnography Project at Yale University, a Consultant on an NIH grant at the University of Southern California, and on the Board of Directors for the Pacific Sociological Association.
Dr. Austin's scholarship is grounded in critical race studies, especially in the contexts of immigration, education, community-based organizations, and the environment. His published volumes include Impacts of Racism on White Americans in the Age of Trump (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021, with Benjamin P. Bowser) and Bringing Fieldwork Back In (The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2012, with Elijah Anderson), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.
Dr. Austin believes that quality teaching and learning fosters intellectual empowerment and social justice. Through learner-centered pedagogy, experiential education, and educating for a diverse world, he empowers his students to apply critical thinking skills to the world around them and to see the relevance of education in their own lives. In doing so, he prepares his students to become civic leaders who actively contribute to society in intelligent and effective ways.
Before entering academia, Dr. Austin worked as a Lead Wilderness Instructor for Outward Bound, a Ski Instructor and School Supervisor for Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, and the Summer Camp Director at Quarterman Ranch in Texas. He is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served as a Teacher Trainer in Paraguay. He is proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, and formerly, Guarani.
As a member of the Cal State East Bay community with an office on the Hayward campus, Dr. Austin acknowledges that he is a guest on the unceded land of the First People of this region, the present-day Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area (formerly Verona Band of Alameda County). He supports the sovereignty of this Chochenyo-Ohlone-speaking tribal group and other Indigenous peoples. This acknowledgment was created by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe with the support of the CSUEB Indigenous Acknowledgment Collective.