Natasha Warikoo

Natasha Warikoo is Professor of Sociology at Tufts University. A former Guggenheim Fellow and high school teacher, Warikoo is an expert on racial and ethnic inequality in education. Her recent book, Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools (University of Chicago Press, May 2022) illuminates tensions related to achievement and emotional well-being in a suburban, high-income town with a large and growing Asian American population. In October 2022 her book Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions will be released (Polity Press).

Warikoo’s previous book, The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities (University of Chicago Press, 2016), shows how undergraduates attending Ivy League universities and Oxford University conceptualize race and meritocracy. Warikoo’s first book, Balancing Acts: Youth Culture in the Global City (University of California Press, 2011), analyzes youth culture among children of immigrants attending diverse, low-performing high schools in New York City and London.

In addition to her academic work, Warikoo is co-chair of the Scholars Strategy Network Boston Chapter, which aims to connect scholars, policymakers, civic leaders, and journalists in the Boston area. She writes and speaks frequently for public audiences (The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more).

Warikoo was previously Associate Professor of Education at Harvard University. Prior to her academic career she was a teacher in New York City’s public schools, and also spent time working at the US Department of Education. Warikoo completed her PhD in sociology from Harvard University, and BSc and BA in mathematics and philosophy at Brown University.