Deirdre Royster 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 1996-2000 as an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Campus. Her research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, and the National Academy of Education and she is beginning a new project on the significance of the Crosson v. Richmond case for African American construction firms and workers.