William H. Tucker (1940-2022), also known as Bill Tucker, was an American psychologist. He was an Emeritus Professor of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

and the author of several books critical of race science. He retired from Rutgers in 2009. Bill died on May 31, 2022.

Early life and education

Tucker received his bachelor's degree from

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

in 1967, and his master's and doctorate from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. He joined the faculty at Rutgers University in 1970 and was there since. During his time as a student at Princeton, he was a member of the

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...

and participated in taking over buildings on campus.

Career

Tucker was a Psychometric Fellow for three years at Princeton, a position subsidized by

Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, b ...

. The majority of Tucker's scholarship was about

psychometrics Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...

, not in it. He sat on the advisory board of the

Institute for the Study of Academic Racism The Institute for the Study of Academic Racism (ISAR) is an organization that monitors "changing intellectual trends in academic racism, biological determinism, and eugenics." ISAR states that in this capacity it "acts as a resource service for stu ...

.ISAR Advisor Council
Retrieved February 7, 2006 Tucker wrote critical commentaries on several hereditarian psychologists known for their controversial work on

race and intelligence Discussions of race and intelligence – specifically, claims of differences in intelligence along racial lines – have appeared in both popular science and academic research since the modern concept of race was first introduced. With the inc ...

. He won the

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

in 1995, and received a fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

in 2006. According to his website, "My research interests concern the use—or more properly the misuse—of social science to support oppressive social policies, especially in the area of race. I seek to explore how scientists in general, and psychologists in particular, have become involved with such issues and what effect their participation has produced."

Publications

*Tucker WH (1994a). Fact and Fiction in the Discovery of Sir Cyril Burt's Flaws. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'', 30, 335–347. *Tucker WH (1994b).
The Science and Politics of Racial Research
'' University of Illinois Press. *Tucker WH (1997). Re-reconsidering Burt: Beyond a reasonable doubt. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'', 33, 145–162. *Tucker WH (2002).

'' University of Illinois Press. *Tucker WH (2005). ''The Intelligence Controversy: A Guide to the Debates.'' ABC-Clio, Inc. *Tucker WH (2009). ''The Cattell Controversy: Race, Science, and Ideology'',

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...

*Tucker WH (2015). ''Princeton Radicals of the 1960s, Then and Now.'' MacFarland

References

External links

Bill Tucker homepage
via Rutgers University.

via

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, William H. 1940 births 21st-century American psychologists Psychology educators Bates College alumni Living people Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Psychometricians Race and intelligence controversy Rutgers University faculty 20th-century American psychologists