Mary C. Waters (born c. 1957) is an American sociologist and author. She is a professor at Harvard University.
Waters grew up in Brooklyn, New York and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is married and has three children.
Waters earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1978. She went on to earn her first M.A. in Demography in 1981 and her second M.A. in1983 from the University of California at Berkeley, along with her PhD in Sociology in 1986. She has taught at Harvard University since 1986 and is the M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology.
Waters specializes in the study of immigration, identity formation and inter-group relations, with an emphasis on ethnic and racial identity among the children of immigrants.
She is noted for her concept of ethnic option, according to which the children and descendants of immigrants have the option of choosing whether or not to identify with the ethnicity of their ancestors. Waters notes, however, that there are four specific factors which influence that choice: “knowledge about ancestors, surname, looks, and the relative rankings of the groups.” The term first appeared in her book Ethnic Options, Choosing Identities in America.'
Awards and honors
In 1993, Waters was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
In 2005, Waters was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
In 2006, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2010, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Waters, Mary C.; Lieberson, Stanley (1988). From Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groups in Contemporary America. Russell Sage Foundation Press. ISBN 978-0871545435.
Waters, Mary C. (1990). Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520070837.
Waters, Mary C. (2001). Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. Russell Sage Foundation Books at Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674007246.
Waters, Mary C.; Levitt, Peggy (2002). The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation. Russell Sage Foundation Press. ISBN 978-0871545176. (ed.)
Waters, Mary C.; Perlmann, Joel (2002). The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals. Russell Sage Foundation Press. ISBN 978-0871546579. (ed.)
Waters, Mary C.; Devine, Fiona (2004). Social inequalities in comparative perspective. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631226857.
Waters, Mary C.; Kasinitz, Philip; Mollenkopf, John H. (2004). Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation. Russell Sage Foundation Press. ISBN 978-0871544360. (ed.)
Waters, Mary C.; Ueda, Reed; Marrow, Helen B. (2007). The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674023574. (ed.)
Waters, Mary C.; Kasinitz, Philip; Mollenkopf, John H.; Holdaway, Jennifer (2009). Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age. Russell Sage Foundation Press. ISBN 978-0871544780.
Waters, Mary C.; Carr, Patrick J.; Kefalas, Maria J.; Holdaway, Jennifer (2011). Coming of Age in America: The Transition to Adulthood in the Twenty-First Century. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520270930. (ed.)
Waters, Mary C.; Devine, Fiona (2004), "Introduction", in Waters, Mary C.; Devine, Fiona, Social inequalities in comparative perspective, Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 1–19, ISBN 9780631226857.
Waters, Mary C. (2004), "Race, ethnicity, and immigration in the United States", in Waters, Mary C.; Devine, Fiona, Social inequalities in comparative perspective, Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 20–38, ISBN 9780631226857.
