Carl L. Bankston
Encyclopedia
Carl L. Bankston III is an American
sociologist and author. He is best known for his work on immigration to the United States
, particularly on the adaptation of Vietnamese American
immigrants, and for his work on ethnicity, social capital
, sociology of religion
and the sociology of education
.
in Dallas, Texas at the end of 1974 or the beginning of 1975 and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. He completed an M.A. in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 or 1981.
He entered the Peace Corps
in 1983 and went to Thailand, where he taught English. Immediately after returning from Thailand, in the Spring of 1985, he took a position as a supervisor of teachers at the Philippine refugee processing center
on the Bataan
Peninsula. There, he helped to prepare refugees from Vietnam
, Cambodia
, and Laos
for resettlement in the United States
.
At the end of 1989, Bankston returned to Louisiana
from the Philippines
. For a few months, he taught Vietnamese American
refugees in New Orleans. He began working on a Ph.D. in sociology at Louisiana State University in the Fall of 1990. He finished his degree in 1995 and became an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. In 1999, he became assistant professor of sociology at Tulane University
. He became an associate professor at Tulane in 2002 and a full professor in 2003.
Bankston became co-director of Tulane’s Asian Studies Program in 2002. He became chair of Tulane’s Department of Sociology in 2006.
He has been active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Sociological Association
, the Southern Sociological Society, and the http://www.midsouthsoc.org/Mid-South Sociological Association
]. He served as vice-president of the Mid-South Sociological Association in from 2003 to 2004. He was elected president of the Mid-South Sociological Association
for the year 2007.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sociologist and author. He is best known for his work on immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
, particularly on the adaptation of Vietnamese American
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....
immigrants, and for his work on ethnicity, social capital
Social capital
Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...
, sociology of religion
Sociology of religion
The sociology of religion concerns the role of religion in society: practices, historical backgrounds, developments and universal themes. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
and the sociology of education
Sociology of education
The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is most concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing...
.
Life
Bankston grew up in the New Orleans area. He earned a B.S. from Southern Methodist UniversitySouthern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in Dallas, Texas at the end of 1974 or the beginning of 1975 and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. He completed an M.A. in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 or 1981.
He entered the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
in 1983 and went to Thailand, where he taught English. Immediately after returning from Thailand, in the Spring of 1985, he took a position as a supervisor of teachers at the Philippine refugee processing center
Philippine Refugee Processing Center
The Philippine Refugee Processing Center was a large facility near Morong, Bataan, Philippines, which was used as the final stop for Indochinese refugees making their way to permanent resettlement in other nations....
on the Bataan
Bataan
Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzon region. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and it is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north...
Peninsula. There, he helped to prepare refugees from Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, and Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
for resettlement in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
At the end of 1989, Bankston returned to Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
from the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. For a few months, he taught Vietnamese American
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....
refugees in New Orleans. He began working on a Ph.D. in sociology at Louisiana State University in the Fall of 1990. He finished his degree in 1995 and became an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. In 1999, he became assistant professor of sociology at Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
. He became an associate professor at Tulane in 2002 and a full professor in 2003.
Bankston became co-director of Tulane’s Asian Studies Program in 2002. He became chair of Tulane’s Department of Sociology in 2006.
He has been active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
, the Southern Sociological Society, and the http://www.midsouthsoc.org/Mid-South Sociological Association
Mid-South Sociological Association
The Mid-South Sociological Association is a non-profit professional organization of sociologists and social scientists established in 1976 to promote the study and understanding of sociological and related issues and problems...
]. He served as vice-president of the Mid-South Sociological Association in from 2003 to 2004. He was elected president of the Mid-South Sociological Association
Mid-South Sociological Association
The Mid-South Sociological Association is a non-profit professional organization of sociologists and social scientists established in 1976 to promote the study and understanding of sociological and related issues and problems...
for the year 2007.
Awards
- Bankston’s second book, Growing Up AmericanGrowing Up AmericanGrowing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States, by Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III is one of the most influential books on the Vietnamese American experience. Published in 1998 by the Russell Sage Foundation, it is widely used in college classes on international...
: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States, co-authored with Min Zhou, was widely recognized as one of the most important works on American immigrationImmigrationImmigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
of the late 1990s. The International Migration Section of the American Sociological AssociationAmerican Sociological AssociationThe American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
gave it the Thomas and Znaniecki Award for outstanding book on migration in 1999. In 2000, the book received the Distinguished Book Award of the Mid-South Sociological Association. - His 2002 book, A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School DesegregationDesegregationDesegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
in Louisiana], co-authored by Stephen J. Caldas, won the 2003 Annual Literary Award of the Louisiana Library Association for best book on Louisiana published in 2002. The book was also featured at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge in 2003 and it was the subject of an “author meets critics” session of the Southwestern Social Sciences Association in San Antonio in 2003. - Bankston won another award for a book published with Stephen J. Caldas, the 2007 Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award for Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation (Praeger, 2005).
- Another book published in 2002, Blue CollarBlue collarBlue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
BayouBayouA bayou is an American term for a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river , or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to creeks that see level changes due to tides and hold brackish water which...
: Louisiana Cajuns in the New Economy of Ethnicity, won the 2005 Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book - Bankston has also received recognition for his presented and published work. He won the 1999 award for outstanding paper from the Louisiana Education Research Association and the 2001 Award for outstanding paper from the Southwest Education Research Association. His article, Bayou Lotus: Theravada Buddhism in Southwestern Louisiana received the award for outstanding published article of 2000 from the journal Sociological Spectrum.
Books as Author
- Science, Technology, and Society in the Third World by Wesley Shrum, Carl L. Bankston III, and D. Stephen Voss (1995).
- http://www.russellsage.org/publications/books/0-87154-994-8 Growing Up AmericanGrowing Up AmericanGrowing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States, by Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III is one of the most influential books on the Vietnamese American experience. Published in 1998 by the Russell Sage Foundation, it is widely used in college classes on international...
: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States ] by Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III (1998) - Straddling Two Social Worlds: The Experience of Vietnamese Refugee Children in the United States by Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III (2000)
- A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana by Carl L. Bankston III and Stephen J. Caldas (2002).
- Blue Collar Bayou: Louisiana Cajuns in the New Economy of Ethnicity by Jacques M. Henry and Carl L. Bankston III (2002).
- Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation by Stephen J. Caldas and Carl L. Bankston III (2005).
- Public Education, America's Religion: A Social History by Carl L. Bankston III and Stephen J. Caldas (2009).
Books as Editor
- "Encyclopedia of Family Life" (5 vols.) edited by Carl L. Bankston III and R. Kent Rasmussen (1998). ISBN 0-89356-940-2.
- "Racial and Ethnic Relations (3 vols.) edited by Carl L. Bankston III and others (1999)
- "Sociology Basics" (2 vols.) edited by Carl L. Bankston III (2000)
- "The End of Desegregation?" edited by Stephen J. Caldas and Carl L. Bankston III (2003)
- "World Conflicts: Asia and the Middle East" edited by Carl L. Bankston III (2003)
- "African American History" edited by Carl L. Bankston III (2003)
- "Immigration in U.S. History" edited by Carl L. Bankston III and Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo (2006)
See also
- Vietnamese Americans
- Laotian AmericansLaotian AmericansLaotian Americans may refer to:*Laotian American*List of Laotian Americans...
- Hmong Americans
- TheravadaTheravadaTheravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
- DesegregationDesegregationDesegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
- SociologySociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
- American Sociological AssociationAmerican Sociological AssociationThe American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
- Achievement gapAchievement gapAchievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The achievement gap can be observed on a variety of measures, including standardized...
- Social CapitalSocial capitalSocial capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...
- CajunCajunCajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
External links
- Review of Growing Up American from Journal of Asian American StudiesJournal of Asian American StudiesThe Journal of Asian American Studies is a triannual academic journal established in 1998 and is the official publication of the Association for Asian American Studies. The journal publishes scholarly articles exploring theoretical developments, research interests, policy and pedagogical issues...
- Spencer Foundation Conference on Sociology and Education Reading List
- The Laotian Population of Louisiana
- Vietnamese Americans: A Brief History
- Vietnamese Americans
- Mid-South Sociological Association
- The Biculturation of the Vietnamese Student
- Bayou Lotus: Theravada Buddhism in Southwestern Louisiana
- The Howard Center Summaries of Recent Social Research
- Radio Interview on Segregation of New Orleans Students Displaced by Katrina
- The Hispanic Challenge from The Wilson Center
- Can Social Capital Explain Persistent Poverty Gaps? from the National Poverty Center
- Review of Public Education: America's Civil Religion
- Bankston's Homepage at Tulane
- Blog