Deborah Carr

Deborah Carr is an A&S Distinguished Professor of Sociology and inaugural director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. She has written extensively on death and dying, bereavement, family relationships over the life course, and the stigma associated with health conditions including obesity and disability. She has published more than 120 articles and chapters, and several books including the award-winning Golden Years? Social Inequality in Later Life (Russell Sage, 2019), Aging in America (University of California Press, 2023), and Worried Sick: How Stress Hurts Us and How to Bounce Back (Rutgers University Press, 2014), as well as several co-authored textbooks including Introduction to Sociology and The Art and Science of Social Research (both with W. W. Norton). She is also co-editor of the Handbook of Aging & Social Sciences, 9th ed. (Elsevier, 2021). She was editor-in-chief of Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (2015-20) and current editor-in-chief of Journal of Health & Social Behavior (2023-26), and is principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). She received the 2022 Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award and 2023 Mentoring Award from the American Sociological Association’s section on Aging & the Life Course. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and a member of the honorary Sociological Research Association. Her work is featured in national media including CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, public television and other sources.