Robert Joseph Taylor
Harold R Johnson Professor of Social Work, Sheila Feld Collegiate Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work and Faculty Associate, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Robert Joseph Taylor is the Sheila Feld Collegiate Professor of Social Work. He is also a faculty associate with the Program for Research on black Americans at the Institute for Social Research. Professor Taylor has published extensively on the informal social support networks (i.e., family, friends, and church members) of adult and elderly Black Americans. He has been principal investigator of several grants from the National Institute on Aging that examine the role of religion in the lives of Black and White elderly adults. He has been co-principal investigator with James Jackson on several grants from the National Institute of Mental Health on the correlates of mental health and mental illness among Black Americans, including the only major national study of the prevalence of mental illness among Black Americans (The National Survey of American Life). He has edited two books, Family Life in Black America (1997) and Aging in Black America (1993) with James S. Jackson and Linda M. Chatters. He is also the lead author of the book, Religion in the Lives of African Americans: Social, Psychological, and Health Perspectives (2004) with Linda Chatters and Jeff Levin. He is the founding editor of African American Research Perspectives and is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marriage and the Family and Race and Social Problems.
Research Interests/Focus
Informal social support networks of adult/elderly African Americans.
Contact Information
| Phone | Room | Address | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (734) 615-9601 | rjtaylor@umich.edu | 4712 SSWB | University of Michigan School of Social Work 1080 S. University Ann Arbor, MI 48109 |
Education
| Year | Degree | School | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | PhD | Social Work and Sociology | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
| 1976 | MSW | Social Work | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
| 1974 | BA | Sociology | Northwestern University, Evanston, IL |
Websites
| http://www.isr.umich.edu/rcgd/prba/ |
| Year | Description |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018 Harol R. Johnson Diversity Service Award |
| 2016 | Harold R. Johnson Professor |
| 2014 | Recipient of the University of Southern California (USC) Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging Permain prize for a career of excellence in research on Aging. February 19, 2014. |
| 2014 | An article in the journal “The Gerontologist” by Brown et al., (2014) 54 (1): 108-116. notes that Robert Joseph Taylor is a pioneer in the field of African American Aging. He is noted for his research on informal family support networks as well as his research on religious participation. |
| 2014 | An article in the journal “Research on Social Work Practice” “Citation Impact Scores of Top African American Scholars in Social Work Schools: The Story Behind the Data*” by Huggins Holt finds that Robert Joseph Taylor is the most cited African American faculty member in the field of social work. |
| 2002-present | Member of the Review Panel, Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior 4, Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes (RPHB-4) |
| 1995-1999 | P.I., Religion, Stress, and Physical/Mental Health in Blacks, National Institute on Aging (NIH) |
| 1994 | Most frequently cited author between 1981 and 1991, citation ranking of scholars that were associated with Black Studies Departments, "The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education" |
| 1992-1995 | P.I., Religious Participation Among Older Blacks and Whites, National Institute on Aging (NIH) |
| 1987 | Member, Minority Aging Planning Grants Ad Hoc Review Committee, National Institute on Aging, NIH |
| 1986-1991 | FIRST Award, National Institute on Aging (NIH), Familial and Non-Familial Support Networks of Black and White Elderly |
| 1983-1985 | National Institute on Aging (NIH), Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship |