Derron O. Wallace

Derron O. Wallace is the Jacob S. Potofsky Chair in Sociology and an associate professor of sociology and education at Brandeis University. He is a sociologist of race, ethnicity, and education who specializes in cross-national analyses of structural and cultural inequalities in education, as experienced by Black youth in Britain and the United States. Wallace is the author of The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth (Oxford University Press, 2023), and his research has garnered awards from the American Educational Research Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

At Radcliffe, Wallace is working on a new comparative ethnography, “The Policing Paradox.” Drawing on in-depth interviews, archival analysis, and ethnographic observations, it explores how Black youth contextualize in-school policing as a solution to students’ safety concerns. The book reveals the United States’ quiet symbolic, cultural, and military influences on policing in British schools; spotlights Britain’s oft-forgotten historical, political, and colonial imprint on US policing; and raises new questions about the nature and limits of policing technologies (e.g., metal detectors and scanning wands) to keep all students safe.

Wallace holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he was a British Marshall Scholar and a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He recently received a Fulbright Scholar Award and an NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. A former community organizer, Wallace’s work in Britain on youth safety, immigrant rights, and fair housing has been featured in America magazine, BBC News, BBC Radio, the Guardian, and ITV.