UCLA’s Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education recognized for his work on opportunity and achievement for students of color.
Updated, 11/13/20 Walter R. Allen has been recognized by Diverse Issues in Higher Education with the John Hope Franklin Award. A nationally renowned and distinguished scholar of education, sociology and African American studies, he will be honored at a virtual ceremony on Monday, Nov. 16. (Visit this link to register and attend this event.)
“I am humbled and honored,” says Professor Allen, who is the Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education in the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. “Dr. John Hope Franklin influenced our nation and the world. He was a great scholar, activist and person.”
Allen is the founder and director of the Choices Project, a research initiative that aims to improve the academic opportunities and achievements of African American and Latino students in California’s higher education system.
Allen came to UCLA after serving as faculty at the University of Michigan, from 1979 to 1991. For over three decades, his impactful research and teaching has focused on higher education, social inequality, family patterns, and socialization and personality development in the U.S. and abroad.
In 2018, Allen was inducted into the National Academy of Education. That year, he also presented the W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) titled, “The Past is Prologue: W.E.B. Du Bois and Black Higher Education.” In addition, he served as a consultant on the documentary, “Tell Them We Are Rising,” on the history of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, part of the PBS series, “Independent Lens.” In 2016, Professor Allen was honored with the AERA Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award.
Currently, Professor Allen co-directs the UCLA Center for Capacity Building with Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, former UCLA Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division. The Center will work with low-resource universities in Colombia, Russia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and South Africa to help build research, teaching, and public service capacity.
The Dr. John Hope Franklin Award was created in 2004 to pay tribute to the late Franklin, a historian, writer, educator and humanitarian who made significant contributions to shaping the perspective on American history in the 20th century. The individuals and organizations chosen for the award are those whose contributions to higher education are consistent with the highest standards of excellence and equity. Past recipients have included Clifton Wharton, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Maya Angelou, the late William Friday and Johnnetta B. Cole, to name a few.
Professor Allen’s UC colleagues Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Law, and Frank H. Wu, William L. Prosser Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Hastings College of the Law, have also been honored with this year’s John Hope Franklin Award.