About our authors

Richard T. Schaefer grew up in Chicago at a time when neighborhoods were going through transitions in ethnic and racial composition. He found himself increasingly intrigued by what was happening, how people were reacting and how these changes were affecting neighborhoods and people’s jobs. In high school, he took a course in sociology. His interest in social issues caused him to gravitate to more sociology courses at Northwestern University, where he eventually received a BA in sociology.

“Originally as an undergraduate I thought I would go on to law school and become a lawyer. But after taking a few sociology courses, I found myself wanting to learn more about what sociologists studied and was fascinated by the kinds of questions they raised,” Dr. Schaefer says. “Perhaps most fascinating and, to me, relevant to the 1960s was the intersection of race, gender and social class.” This interest led him to obtain his MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Schaefer’s continuing interest in race relations led him to write his master’s thesis on the membership of the Ku Klux Klan and his doctoral thesis on racial prejudice and race relations in Great Britain.

Dr. Schaefer went on to become a professor of sociology. He has taught sociology and courses on multiculturalism for 40 years. He has been invited to give special presentations on racial and ethnic diversity to students and faculty in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.

Dr. Schaefer is the author of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, 9th Edition (Pearson, 2019). He is the general editor of the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society (2008). He is also the author of the 15th Edition of Sociology: A Brief Introduction (2025), the 6th Edition of Sociology: A Modular Approach (2023), and the 8th Edition of Sociology Matters (2024). He coauthored with William Zellner the 9th Edition of Extraordinary Groups (2015). Schaefer’s books have been translated into Chinese (long and short forms), Sinhalese, Indonesian, Turkish, Japanese, Sinhalese, Portuguese, and Spanish, as well as adapted for use in Canadian colleges. His articles and book reviews have appeared in many journals, including American Journal of Sociology, Phylon: A Review of Race and Culture, Contemporary Sociology, Sociology and Social Research, Sociological Quarterly and Teaching Sociology. He served as president of the Midwest Sociological Society from 1994 to 1995.

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