Deirdre A. Royster, Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality, joined the College of William and Mary faculty in 2002 as an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and currently serves as chair of the department. Royster received her doctorate in sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1996 and worked from 1996-2001 as an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts , Amherst Campus. Professor Royster was awarded the 1999-2000 Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences while she was at UMass-Amherst. Her research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. Her book, Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue Collar Jobs (University of California Press, 2003), was a finalist for the 2004 C. Wright Mills Best Book Award (Society for the Study of Social Problems) and was winner of the 2004 Oliver Cromwell Cox Best Book Award (American Sociological Association ~ Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities). She is currently beginning research on patterns of inequality in Virginia , with a focus on obstacles to wealth accumulation faced by African Americans.