In Memoriam

The Harvard Sociology community mourns the loss of Devah Pager, who died on Friday, November 2, 2018 after a long illness. Devah was the Peter & Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, where she also directed the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy.

Devah’s creative, rigorous, and insightful work on discrimination in low-wage labor markets had a truly global impact, including in the 2004 US Presidential campaign, when the New York Times, among other outlets, featured work from her dissertation, including her famous article in the American Journal of Sociology, “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” Her work’s large-scale impact continues today, in efforts to “ban the box” in many states. Devah inspired us with her sunshine warmth, her deep humanity, her intellectual rigor, her community building, her engaged scholarship, and of course her brilliant smile. We all miss her terribly and count ourselves fortunate indeed to have worked with her and learned from her.

See "Devah Pager: Light in the Heart of Darkness" (Esendom, November 5, 2018); the article "Mourning Devah Pager" in the Harvard Gazette (November 8, 2018); an obituary published on November 8, 2018 in The New York Times and in the Boston Globe of November 12, 2018; also the article in the Harvard Crimson of November 12, 2018; The Inspiring Life and Career of Devah Pager by Bruce Western (The Marshall Project, November 13, 2018).

 

Nathan Glazer, Professor of Education and Social Structure, Emeritus, died at his home in Cambridge, at the age of 95.  Professor Glazer was an influential sociologist, public intellectual, and dear colleague in our Department, and he will be deeply missed. 

See the remembrance in The New York Times: Nathan Glazer, Urban Sociologist and Outspoken Intellectual, Dies at 95, and inThe Harvard Crimson article,Sociology Professor Emeritus and "Independent Spirit" Nathan Glazer dies at Age 95.