Shaun R. Harper

Shaun R. Harper is on the faculty in the Graduate School of Education, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education. He is co­founder of the Penn GSE Black Male Grad Prep Academy, an initiative that prepares undergraduate men for doctoral study in education fields.

Professor Harper maintains an active research agenda that examines race and gender in higher education, Black male college access and achievement, and college student engagement. He is author of over 80 peer-­reviewed journal articles and other academic publications. His 10 books include: Student Engagement in Higher Education (2009, 2014), College Men and Masculinities (2010), and the 5th edition of Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession (2011).

He is co-editor of the Stylus Engaged Research and Practice for Social Justice in Education series; editor-in-chief of the Routledge book series on Race and Racism in U.S. Higher Education; and associate editor of Educational Researcher, a journal of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Dr. Harper is principal investigator of the New York City Black and Latino Male High School Achievement Study, a project that entailed individual interviews with 415 young men of color from 40 public high schools. Several associations have praised his scholarship, including the Association for the Study of Higher Education (2008 Early Career Award), AERA (2010 Early Career Award), and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (2012 Robert H. Shaffer Award for Faculty Excellence).