Chandra Waring is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at UMass Lowell.

Chandra D.L. Waring

Assistant Professor

College
College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Department
Sociology
Phone
978-934-4123
Office
Dugan Hall 205L

Expertise

Race/racism, Bi/multiracial Americans, Intersections of race and gender, Qualitative research methods

Education

  • Ph.D.: Sociology, University of Connecticut, 2013
    • Dissertation: "Beyond 'Code-switching:' Racial Capital of Black / White Biracial Americans"
  • Graduate Certificate: Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut, 2010
  • M.A: Sociology, University of Connecticut, 2009
  • B.A.: Sociology, University of Connecticut, 2007

Biosketch

Chandra D. L. Waring's research focuses on the growing bi/multiracial American population. Her first study centered the experiences of Black/white biracials by exploring their family relationships, immigrant connections, dating patterns and preferences and their interactions with the white and Black communities. Her work decenters the short-sighted, yet convenient narrative that the increasing bi/multiracial Black/white population is evidence of a less racially contentious and more racially harmonious society. In a population that is often framed as the embodiment of a racial panacea, her work illuminates the complex and invisibilized racial realities of this community.

Her new study examines the comprehensive impact of whiteness in the bi/multiracial population of a variety of racial backgrounds (Black/white, Latinx/white, Asian/white and Indigenous/white). She explores how this subgroup articulates white privilege, how they experience white privilege and how white ancestry-and particularly appearing white-generates some disadvantages for them. She also investigates how their racial and ethnic backgrounds are policed by monoracials (single-race individuals). Her research complicates and updates the literature on white privilege and expands the scholarship on bi/multiracials by focusing on individuals of many bi/multiracial backgrounds.

Selected Publications

  • Waring, Chandra D. L. 2022. “Appearance, Parentage and Paradox: The White Privilege of Bi/Multiracial Americans with White Ancestry.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492221106439.
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. 2021. "Introduction: You Make Me Proud" in Trailblazers: Black Women Who Helped Make America Great: Volume 1. Gabrielle David. 2Leaf Press: New York.
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. 2020. “Black and Biracial Americans Wouldn’t Need to Code-Switch if We Lived in a Post-Racial Society” in America Now: Short Essays on Current Issues (13th Edition).
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. 2019. "Black and Biracial Americans Wouldn't Need to Code-Switch if We Lived in a Post-Racial Society" in America Now: Short Essays on Current Issues (13th Edition).
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. and Samit D. Bordoloi. 2019. "'I Don't Look Like Her:' Race, Resemblance and Relationships in Multiracial Families." Sociological Perspectives. 62(2): 149-166. *Editor's Pick
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. and Bandana Purkayastha. 2017. "'I'm a Different Kind of Biracial:' How Black/White Biracial Americans with Immigrant Parents Negotiate Race in the U.S." Social Identities. 23(5):614-630.
  • Waring, Chandra D. L. 2017. "'It's Like We Have an 'In' Already:' The Racial Capital of Black/White Biracial Americans." Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 14(1):145-163.