Thomas F. Pettigrew, research professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, has been named winner of the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award of the Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
The Whyte Distinguished Career Award is given annually to one or two individuals who have made notable contributions to sociological practice and public sociology. It is scheduled to be presented in August at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Las Vegas.
Pettigrew, an internationally renowned expert on racism and intergroup relations, has continued to lead a distinguished research career since retiring from UCSC in 1994. In 2009, he received the University of California Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award given for accomplishments since retirement.
He is the author of a new book, When Groups Meet: the Dynamics of Intergroup Contact (Psychology Press, 2011), written with Linda Tropp, a former UCSC graduate. Pettigrew and Tropp's book is the first meta-analysis to synthesize research on conflict between groups -- racial, ethnic, religious, regional, economic, and social.
In 2008, Pettigrew won the Distinguished Social Sciences Emeriti Faculty Award.
