Deborah Carr | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific career | |
| Education | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | The fulfillment of career goals over the life course and midlife mental health |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert M. Hauser |
Deborah Carr is an American sociologist, academic, and author. She is the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Sociology and the inaugural director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. [1] [2] In 2024, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [3] [4] [5]
Carr earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997, [6] where her dissertation focused on whether the fulfillment of occupational goals influences mental health at midlife. [7]
Carr has held faculty positions at University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and Rutgers University, where she was acting director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy & Aging Research. [8] In September 2021, she was appointed as the inaugural director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. [2] In May 2024, she was awarded the title of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor by the Dean of the Boston University College of Arts & Sciences. [1]
In January 2023, she was appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. [9] Prior to this, she held the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences from 2015 to 2020. [10] Additionally, she has served as Deputy Editor for both Social Psychology Quarterly and the Journal of Marriage and Family, as well as Trends Editor for Contexts. [6]
She has led several surveys, including her current role as the Principal Investigator of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) [11] and co-investigator of the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS). [8] Additionally, she served as the Principal Investigator of the New Jersey End of Life Study and Wisconsin Study of Families and Loss (WISTFL), a follow up to Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. [6] She has also chaired the Board of Overseers of the General Social Survey. [8]
Carr is a life course sociologist who specializes in utilizing survey data and quantitative methods to investigate social factors affecting health and well-being in later life. [12] Her research focuses on four key areas: the effects of family-related stressors, such as divorce and widowhood, on health and well-being in older adulthood, [13] [14] the social, psychological, and interpersonal consequences of the stigma associated with obesity, [15] the impact of global warming on the health and well-being of the elderly, [16] and issues related to death, dying, and bereavement. [17] Her work has been funded by National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and RRF Foundation on Aging, among other organizations. [12]