Carolyn Moxley Rouse (born c. 1965) is an American anthropologist, professor and filmmaker. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Biography

Rouse grew up in

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...

, the daughter of a physicist (her father,

Carl A. Rouse Carl A. Rouse (July 14, 1926 - February 25, 2014) was an American physicist, working in the fields of atomic, plasma, and computational physics. Rouse was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Caltech (and only the fifth Afr ...

) and a psychologist (her mother, Lorraine). She encountered discrimination at an early age as her family was prevented from buying a home in

Rancho Santa Fe Rancho Santa Fe is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California, United States, within the San Diego metropolitan area. The population was 3,156 at the 2020 census. The CDP is primarily residential with a few shopping block ...

because of their race. Rouse attended

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, graduating in 1987. In her junior year, she studied abroad in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

in a program focused on

wildlife biology A wildlife biologist studies animals and their behavior along with the role each animal plays in its natural habitat. The duties of a wildlife biologist can include: developing and conducting experiments/studies on animals in their natural habitats, ...

, but found she was much more interested in the people around her, which prompted a turn toward documentary film, then eventually a master's in

visual anthropology Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science an ...

and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. Rouse's siblings are both academics; her brother is a professor of physics and her sister,

Cecilia Rouse Cecilia Elena Rouse ( ; born December18, 1963) is an American economist who has served as the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers since March 2021. She is the first Black American to hold this position. Prior to this, she served as the ...

, is the Katzman-Ernst Professor in Economics and Education, and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Cecilia was also the Dean of the

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

before stepping down from that position to serve as the

Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

for the Biden Administration. Rouse's brother-in-law (Cecilia's husband) is Ford Morrison, son of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning author and Princeton professor emeritus

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

Bibliography

* ''Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam'' (

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 2004) * ''Uncertain Suffering: Racial Healthcare Disparities and Sickle Cell Disease'' (University of California Press, 2009) * ''Televised Redemption: Black Religious Media and Racial Empowerment'' with John L. Jackson, Jr., and

Marla F. Frederick Marla Faye Frederick is an American ethnographer and scholar, with a focus on the African American religious experience. Her work addresses a range of topics including race, gender, religion and media studies. She became the eighteenth Dean of Harv ...

(

NYU Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University. History NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown. Directors * Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–1932 ...

, 2017) * ''Development Hubris: Adventures Trying to Save the World'' (forthcoming)

Filmography

* ''Chicks in White Satin'' (1994) * ''Purification to Prozac: Treating Mental Illness in Bali'' (1998) * ''Listening as a Radical Act: World Anthropologies and the Decentering of Western Thought'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rouse, Carolyn Living people Princeton University faculty Swarthmore College alumni American women anthropologists American documentary filmmakers People from Del Mar, California Visual anthropologists African-American academics University of Southern California alumni 20th-century American anthropologists 21st-century American anthropologists 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists African-American activists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers American women documentary filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American writers African-American women writers