Mark R. Warren

Mark R. Warren is a sociologist and professor of public policy and public affairs in the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Mark studies and works with community and youth organizing groups seeking to promote equity and justice in education, community development and American democratic life. He is committed to developing a new approach to scholarly work that is engaged and collaborative with community organizers and education activists. Mark is the author of several books that highlight organizing against systemic racism and to create models of public education that are empowering for young people and families.

Mark’s most recent book is Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline. His previous book Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement features essays by community leaders around the country discussing their experiences working for educational equity and building an intersectional movement for educational justice in alliance with other social movements.

Mark has worked to build several networks promoting activist scholarship, community organizing and movement-building. He is a co-founder of the People’s Think Tank on educational justice, the Urban Research Based Action Network, and the Special Interest Group on Community and Youth Organizing in the American Educational Research Association.

Mark has received a number of prestigious awards and fellowships for his community-engaged scholarship. These include the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the SAGE Sara Miller McCune Fellowship at the Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the College Board Fellowship to Advance Educational Excellence for Young Men of Color at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. He was selected as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2020.

Before coming to the University of Massachusetts, Mark was an associate professor of education at Harvard University and an active member of the community at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research. Prior to holding that position, Mark was associate professor of sociology at Fordham University, where he founded and directed the college’s service learning program.

Mark teaches courses on public policy and social justice, community engaged research, and education organizing. He works closely with many doctoral students who are interested in community organizing and school reform, in the relationship between communities and schools, and in the role of activism in advancing social, racial and educational justice.

Contact Information for Mark Warren