MPC Member Carolyn Liebler, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, has received a new grant from the Russell Sage Foundation entitled “Racial Identities and Life Choices among Mixed-Heritage People in the USA.” This project seeks to understand intertwined aspects (e.g., racial identifications, spousal choices, and upbringing of children) of the lives of multiracial people from three distinct racial backgrounds using both qualitative interviews and quantitative analyses of census data. Together with collaborator Miri Song at the University of Kent, Liebler aims to answer three key questions: How do a person's race and ancestry responses link to their choice of spouse and the racial identification of their children? Does the answer to this question vary by location in the United States? And, does it vary across different mixed-heritage groups?
Their research will examine family-level effects of variation in the identities of mixed-heritage Black/White, Asian/White, and American Indian/White people. This research will contribute to a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the diversity of the mixed-heritage population in different parts of the US, and via in-depth interviews, variation in practices and decisions that mixed-heritage parents report in relation to their spouses and their children.