Hewitt, Roger

PERSONAL:

Education: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Centre for Urban and Community Research, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Academic. University of London, London, England, Institute of Education, faculty member, 1981-97, Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, senior research associate and deputy head of the centre.

WRITINGS:

Structure, Meaning, and Ritual in the Narratives of the Southern San, H. Buske (Hamburg, Germany), 1986, revised edition, with introduction by the author, Transaction Publishers (Edison, NJ), 2008.

White Talk Black Talk: Inter-racial Friendship and Communication amongst Adolescents, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Routes of Racism: The Social Basis of Racist Action, Trentham Books (Stoke-on-Trent, England), 1997.

(With Neil Spicer) The Mainstreaming of the Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham, Southwark Primary Care Trust (London, England), 2002.

(With Neil Spicer and Jane Tooke) Projects, Participation, and Partnerships, Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham Health Action Zone (London, England), 2002.

(With Karen Wells) On the Margins? A Qualitative Study of White Camden Households at Risk of Exclusion from Education and Employment, Camden Council (London, England), 2005.

White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Violence, Xenophobia and Racism ("European Studies in Education" series), edited by Bernhard Dieckmann, Christoph Wulf, and Michael Wimmer, Waxmann (New York, NY), 1997; Cultural Diversity and Social Policy in the European Union, edited by J. Gundara and S. Jacobs, Arena (London, England), 2000; Identity, Social Justice and Education, edited by C. Vincent, Routledge/Falmer (London, England), 2003; Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader, edited by Roxy Harris and Ben Rampton, Routledge (London, England), 2003. Also contributor to special issue of Athanor: Semiotica, Filosofia, Arte, Letteratura; Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research; and working papers.

With Franco Rosso, made documentary video Routes of Racism.

SIDELIGHTS:

Roger Hewitt earned his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and then entered a career in academia. He was a faculty member of the Institute of Education at the University of London from 1981 to 1997 before transferring to the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths College. At CUCR he serves as both a senior research associate and the deputy head of the center. According to the University College London, Mellon Programme Web site, "he is best known for his contributions to the sociology of racism."

The recipient of numerous research grants, Hewitt "has been primarily concerned with cultural diversity and the sociology and politics of inclusion." His profile on the Centre for Urban and Community Research Web site goes on to say that Hewitt's "commitment to the study of language in social life, of cultural ‘disorder’ and the social transmission of racism have led him more recently towards the profiling of social change and new communities, taking particular interest in cultural and economic innovation." He has written about his findings in periodical articles and several book chapters, as well as in full-length books.

Hewitt's first books, Structure, Meaning, and Ritual in the Narratives of the Southern San, and White Talk Black Talk: Inter-racial Friendship and Communication amongst Adolescents, were published in 1986. In 1997, Hewitt published Routes of Racism: The Social Basis of Racist Action. With Neil Spicer, Hewitt published The Mainstreaming of the Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham in 2002. That same year he and Spicer published Projects, Participation, and Partnerships with the additional assistance of Jane Tooke. In 2005, Hewitt wrote On the Margins? A Qualitative Study of White Camden Households at Risk of Exclusion from Education and Employment with Karen Wells.

In 2005, Hewitt published White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism. The account looks at the increasing ethnic diversification of Europe's population over the second half of the twentieth century and the pro-ethnic-minority policies that many academics and ordinary citizens say are unfair to the majority, primarily Caucasian, population. Hewitt uses the London suburb of Greenwich as his main case study for sampling the attitudes of young white denizens of the area toward multiculturalism in the aftermaths of three racially motivated killings. In this regard Hewitt shows how multicultural policies, successfully or not, address fears and concerns of a specific community, in addition to coping with issues such as racism, prejudices, and stereotypes. Hewitt also highlights the split within the academic community over multicultural politics and policies. He also looks into cases in the United States and Australia, showing how other countries deal with the issue in differing ways.

A contributor to the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare commented that the author "goes far beyond an idiographic account of particular events to offer a sophisticated theoretical analysis of a huge body of literature that addresses" the issues of race-oriented violence in London. Noting that Hewitt's summaries of the various theoretical perspectives were both "impressive" and "helpful," the same contributor concluded that White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism "makes a significant contribution to understanding the complexities of cultural diversity in the industrial nations today and should be widely consulted."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, December 1, 1987, Thomas Kochman, review of White Talk Black Talk: Interracial Friendship and Communication amongst Adolescents, p. 1010.

American Journal of Sociology, November 1, 1988, Geneva Smitherman-Donaldson, review of White Talk Black Talk, p. 685.

Contemporary Sociology, July 1, 2006, Nasar Meer, review of White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism, p. 402.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, August 1, 2007, review of White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism, p. 1018.

Journal of Intercultural Studies, May 1, 2007, J.S. Frideres, review of White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism, p. 249.

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, September 1, 2006, review of White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism, p. 190.

ONLINE

Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London Web site,http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cucr/ (April 12, 2008), author profile.

University College London, Mellon Programme Web site,http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mellon-program/ (April 12, 2008), author profile.