Hajar Yazdiha

Hajar Yazdiha, assistant professor of sociology, was awarded the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book for The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press, 2023). Granted by the American Sociological Association, the award honors the best books in the field of cultural sociology that are notable for their originality, intellectual rigor and contribution to the discipline. Yazdiha’s work critically examines how revisionist appropriation of civil rights memory by various political groups distorts historical understanding and perpetuates racial inequality.