Loretta Bass

Ph.D. - University of Connecticut, 1998

International Migration, Child Labor, Stratification, Fertility, Demography

Loretta came to the University of Oklahoma after earning her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Connecticut and completing a 2-year appointment in the Population Division at the U.S. Census Bureau. Loretta is a demographer who focuses her research on stratification issues, migrants, and children in the United States, Africa, and Europe. Her book, African Immigrant Families Another France (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), examines the integration experiences of international migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to France. Her prior book, Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004), offers a window on the lives of child workers in 43 African countries.

Loretta currently serves as the President of the International Sociological Association’s Sociology of Migration Research Committee, RC31 (2023-27) and as Board Member of ISA’s RC 31 (2023-27), Sociology of Childhood. Loretta serves on the Editorial Board for the journals, Social Problems, International Sociology, Social Science Quarterly, and the Sociological Studies of Children and Youth. In addition, Loretta is a Consultant within the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Academic Program Review Group.

Loretta has served in several leadership positions in the ASA, including as Newsletter Editor (1999-2003) and later as Chair (2010-12) of the Children and Youth Section. She then served on the ASA National Membership Committee (2018-19) and as the Secretary-Treasurer for the ASA International Migration Section (2016-19). Active in the International Sociological Association (ISA), Loretta has served on the Board of RC53 Research Committee on the Sociology of Childhood (2006-10) and later as President (2014-18). She also served as Secretary-Treasurer of the ISA’s Thematic Group on Human Rights for an extended Covid term (2018-23) and as Program Coordinator for the 20^th ISA World Congress in 2023.

Loretta's research agenda has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Jefferson Science Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the U.S. Census Bureau, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and the University of Oklahoma Foundation.

• 2024-25 Award for Outstanding Global Engagement, University of Oklahoma
• 2023-24 Jefferson Science Fellowship, Selected by the National Academies of Sciences for position at the US Agency for International Development, Washington, DC. 
• 2018 Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professorship, University of Oklahoma