Kenneth Prewitt (born March 16, 1936) is the Carnegie Professor of Social Affairs at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's School of International and Public Affairs, where he is also director of the Scholarly Knowledge Project. He was

Director of the United States Census Bureau The Director of the Bureau of the Census is the chief administrator of the United States Census Bureau (USCB). The officeholder is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate and assisted by the Deput ...

from 1998 to 2001.

Biography

Prewitt was born March 16, 1936 in

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the ...

. He graduated from

Alton High School Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia * Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario * Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealan ...

in 1954 and then attended

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...

for one year before transferring to

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

. Prewitt received a B.A. in 1958 from Southern Methodist; a M.A. in 1959 from

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, and a 1963 Ph.D. in political science from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with a thesis "Career patterns and role-orientations: an inquiry into the political behavior of city councilmen" and was a Danforth Fellow at the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

from 1959 to 1960. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1965, rising to the rank of first Associate and then Full Professor. From 1998 to 2000 he was the Director of the

Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

from 1998-2001 and Director of the

National Opinion Research Center NORC at the University of Chicago is one of the largest independent social research organizations in the United States. Established in 1941 as the National Opinion Research Center, its corporate headquarters is located in downtown Chicago, with o ...

. He has also served as president of the

Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...

, as senior vice president of the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, and as Dean of the Graduate School at the

New School University The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. Since 2015, he has been the president of the

American Academy of Political and Social Science The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) was founded in 1889 to promote progress in the social sciences. Sparked by Professor Edmund J. James and drawing from members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmo ...

. Prewitt has two children by his first marriage, and is now married to Susan Mullin Vogel, an art historian, museum curator and leader, and filmmaker.

Academic Work

Honors

He is a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social a ...

, and the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

. He has received a Guggenheim fellowship and a Lifetime Career Award from the American Political Science Association,. He also has received honorary degrees from

and from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

and .

Publications

Books

*Kenneth Prewitt. ''What is Your Race? The Flawed Effort of the Census to Classify Americans'' Princeton University Press, 2013. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 207 libraries *Kenneth Prewitt; Thomas A Schwandt; Miron L Straf, eds.. ''Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy'' National Research Council of the National Academies, 2012
free download
*Kenneth Prewitt, ed. ''The federal statistical system : its vulnerability matters more than you think '' (''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 631'') Sage Foundation, 2010/ *Kenneth Prewitt. ''The Hard Count: The Political and Social Challenges of Census Mobilization'' Russell Sage Foundation, 2010 *Kenneth Prewitt., ed. ''The Legitimacy of Philanthropic Foundations: United States and European Perspectives.'' New York: R. Sage Foundation, 2006 *Prewitt, Kenneth. ''The Recruitment of Political Leaders: A Study of Citizen-Politicians.'' Westport Conn: Greenwood Press, 1981 *Prewitt, Kenneth, and Sidney Verba. ''An Introduction to American Government.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1974. 9780060452841; 2nd ed, 1977; 3rd ed. 1979; 4th ed. 1983 (this and subsequent eds. with Robert Holt Salisbury); 5th ed. 1987; 6th ed. 1991. **Abridged version publ.as ''Principles of American Government '' 1975. *Prewitt, Kenneth, and Alan Stone. ''The Ruling Elites: Elite Theory, Power, and American Democracy.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1973. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 631 librariesWorldCat item record
/ref> *Prewitt, Kenneth.'' Education and Political Values: An East African Case Study''. Nairobi: East African Pub. House, 1971 OCLC 643528

Other publications

He has also published 100 articles and book chapters

References

External links

Official CV at Columbia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prewitt, Kenneth 1936 births Living people People from Alton, Illinois DePauw University alumni Southern Methodist University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni Stanford University alumni Columbia University faculty Columbia School of International and Public Affairs faculty University of Chicago faculty The New School faculty Social Science Research Council Fellows of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Clinton administration personnel