Five Questions with CU Alumna Mary Pattillo
(February 2025)
Mary Pattillo is the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University. As an undergraduate at Columbia in the late 80's and early 90's, Mary majored in Urban Studies with a concentration in Sociology. Her experiences with the sociology department were a jumping board toward receiving a PhD in Sociology from UChicago and becoming a leading figure in research about race and ethnicity, urban sociology, inequality, housing, and more.
To learn more about Mary and the influence of CU Sociology on her distinguished work and career, read her answers to our questions below!
1. When and how were you involved with Columbia Sociology?
I was at Columbia from 1987 to 1991. I chose an Urban Studies major with a concentration in Sociology. The Urban Studies major was new at the time and directed by Professor Kathryn Yatrakis. My best friend also chose Urban Studies, but she concentrated in Economics. I feel like I’ve been a sociologist from even before college. I’ve always been attuned to social inequalities, especially related to race. I chose Sociology as my concentration mostly because of courses I took with Professor Lynn Chancer at Barnard. I just remember her passion and energy for the dissertation.
2. How has your experience with Columbia Sociology influenced you as a researcher? Which Columbia sociologists have influenced you the most, and how?
Lynn Chancer and Jonathan Rieder both taught courses that I enjoyed. Lynn Chancer taught William Julius Wilson’s work. He is why I applied to University of Chicago. Wilson was the preeminent sociologist of Black America. Reider introduced me to urban ethnography. I remember very clearly reading The Cocaine Kids by Terry Williams. It was gritty and engaging and an incredibly rich description of urban New York youth drug culture. I was also reading Zora Neale Hurston in my Black literature courses. Hurston was a Columbia trained anthropologist who was also a keen observer and vivid chronicler – in her case – of Black Southern culture. These authors who I read in class were models of the kind of sociologist I wanted to be.
3. Do you have any particular memories of Columbia Sociology (e.g. a professor, an event, an interaction) that current members of the department might find interesting or entertaining?
I took some kind of Intro course with Professor Ronald Burt. Maybe it was something like Foundations of Sociology or The Sociological Imagination. Anyway, Prof Burt would breeze into class, scribble the information for the day on the board, ask hurriedly if there were any questions, and if no one responded within 10 seconds, he was gone!!! I learned his rhythm and started to shoot my hand up and ask questions or make comments. I guess he appreciated that and called me to his office and told me I should go get a PhD. And so I did!
4. What are you currently working on?
I’ve been Chair of the Black Studies department at Northwestern for 5 years. I have sketched out a project that I call Black Advantage Vision, where the goal is to ask research questions for which the hypothesis is that Black people have an advantage over White people. Now I want to put some empirical meat on these conceptual bones.
5. What do you miss most about living in New York City?
I have come to love Chicago as a big city that is more human scale. But what I miss about New York City is the food options on every block!!! New York is where I became a vegetarian because there are so many great options. And of course I love the walkability of New York!