Charles Hirschman retired in 2017 from the University Washington as the Boeing International Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Washington and continues to be engaged in research, writing, advising students, and professional service, though at a much slower pace than before.
Hirschman received a BA from Miami University (Ohio) in 1965 and a MS (1969) and PhD (1972) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduating from Miami University in January 1965, Hirschman joined the Peace Corps and served for two years as a volunteer working in rural community development in a village near Baling, Kedah in Malaysia. After completing his graduate studies at Wisconsin in 1972, he held appointments at Duke University (1972 – 1981) and Cornell University (1981 – 1987) before joining the University of Washington in 1987 as professor of sociology. He was appointed to be the Boeing International Professor in 1998 and as a joint professor the UW Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance in 2002. He was the director the UW Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology from 1987 to 1995 and served as chair of the Department of Sociology from 1995 to 1998. In addition to his academic appointments, Hirschman served for 18 months as a Ford Foundation demographic advisor the Malaysian Department of Statistics from January 1974 to June 1975 and was a visiting fellow at the University of Malaya (1984), Australian National University (1985), the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (1993-94), the Russell Sage Foundation (1998-99), and the Population Reference Bureau (2005-06). He was a visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Malaya from 2012 to 2013.
Hirschman’s teaching and research focused on demography, immigration, and race-ethnicity in the United States and Southeast Asia. He authored four books (most recently, From High School to College: Immigrant Generation, and Race-Ethnicity, Russell Sage, 2016), more than 125 articles/book chapters, and about 50 book reviews/comments. He was elected President of the Population Association of America (2005), Chair of Section K (Social, Economic, and Political Sciences) of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (2004-05) and is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.