Eddie R. Cole

Associate Dean, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Professor

Eddie R. Cole, Ph.D., is Professor of Education and History at UCLA.

He is author of the award-winning book, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2020), and co-author of With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (University of North Carolina Press, in-press 2024).

Professor Cole spent the 2023-24 academic year at Harvard University as a Joy Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

In addition to research support from the Radcliffe Institute, Professor Cole’s has also received fellowships and grants from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (now the Institute for Citizens & Scholars), the Spencer Foundation, the National Academy of Education, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.

A historian of higher education, Professor Cole’s research focuses on leadership, race, and social movements on American college campuses. His research explores power and systems of power; education’s impact on society; and higher education and organizational change.

His first book, The Campus Color Line, is a history of how academic leaders shaped racial policies and practices during the mid-twentieth century. It was awarded five book prizes:

2022: Outstanding Publication Award, American Educational Research Association, Division J.
2021: Outstanding Book Award, History of Education Society
2021: Frederic W. Ness Book Award, Association of American Colleges & Universities
2021: Outstanding Book Award, Association for the Study of Higher Education
2021: Critics’ Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association

In addition to The Campus Color Line, Professor Cole has published in the Journal of African American History, Peabody Journal of Education, and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

His engagement beyond the academy is demonstrated as a frequenter speaker; writer of op-eds in TIME, The Guardian, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chronicle of Higher Education; and an expert commentator for CNN, BBC World News, MSNBC, and C-Span Book TV.

Professor Cole is also a senior fellow for the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy.

Departments

Department of Education

Programs

Academic Advising Specializations

Interests

Expertise

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

2023: Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
2022: Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award, American Educational Research Association, Division J.
2021: Winner of the Outstanding Book Award, History of Education Society
2021: Winner of the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, Association of American Colleges & Universities

2021: Winner of the Outstanding Book Award, Association for the Study of Higher Education
2021: Winner of the Critics’ Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association
2018: Early Career Award, Association for the Study of Higher Education
2018: Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Education
2017: Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
2017: Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship, University of Chicago
2015: National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

Education

Ph.D., Higher Education, Indiana University
M.S.Ed., Student Affairs Administration, Indiana University
B.S., Speech Communication, Tennessee State University

Select Publications

Njoku, N. & Cole, E. R. (2024). “To Give Up the Little Kingdoms”: The Black College and the Gains and Losses of Desegregation. Journal of African American History. 109(1), 103-127.
Cole, E. R. and Burris-Greene, C. L. (2024). Black Higher Education: A Historiography of Perseverance and Triumph. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (Springer Publishing).
Cole, E. R. (2023). Presidential Responses to Campus Racism: A Historical Perspective. In W. A. Smith and K. Lomotey (Eds.), The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education (Third Edition, SUNY Press).
Ris, E. W. & Cole, E. R. (2023). Promises Made: The Truman Commission Report at 75. Peabody Journal of Education, 98(3), 265-268.
Cole, E. R. (2020). The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

Cole, E. R. (2020). Race at the Top: Historical Insights on the College Presidency and Racial Inequities. Change, 52(2), 17-21.
Cole, E. R. (2018). College Presidents and Black Student Protests: A Historical Perspective on the Image of Racial Inclusion and the Reality of Exclusion. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(1), 78-89.
Cole, E. R., & Harper, S. R. (2017). Race and Rhetoric. An Analysis of College Presidents’ Statements on Campus Racial Incidents. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 10(4), 318-333.