Aldon Morris is the Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University. His interests include race, social inequality, religion, politics, theory and social movements. Morris is the author of the award winning book, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1986 Origins won the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association. He is co-editor of the volumes, Frontiers in Social Movement Theory and Opposition Consciousness. He has published widely on a variety of topics. He is currently completing a book on the sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois and his role as a founder of American sociology. He is working on a project on the civil rights movements throughout the United States rather than focusing exclusively on the Southern Civil Rights Movement. In 2006 Morris was the recipient Of the Association of Black Sociologists Joseph Himes award for Lifetime Achievement for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship. Morris is the 2013 recipient of the Association of Black Sociologists’ A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring and Service.
In 2009 Morris won the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award for a lifetime of research, scholarship and teaching from the American Sociological Association.
Morris is a former Chair of Sociology, Director of Asian American Studies and Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.