Matthew C. Whitaker

Matthew C. Whitaker is an American historian. He was an associate professor of history and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University; in January 2016 ASU announced that he had resigned these positions.

Whitaker became the subject of public controversy in Arizona when he was demoted, but temporarily retained on the faculty of Arizona State University despite being found to have committed "significant" plagiarism. He was placed on administrative leave on September 17, 2015, while the university investigated allegations that "his behavior has fallen short of expectations as a faculty member and a scholar." On January 15, 2016, ASU released a statement that Whitaker would immediately step down from his center co-directorship and would resign his faculty position effective May 2017.

Whitaker was born and reared in Phoenix.

Whitaker earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in history, a Master of Arts (MA) in history, and a BA in sociology from Arizona State University, and a PhD in history from Michigan State University. He currently teaches at Arizona State University where he is an associate professor of history. Whitaker founded the university's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and served as its first director. He was formerly Foundation Professor of History and Director of the Center he founded, but the title and position were taken from him on June 26, 2015 as disciplinary measures due to plagiarism.

His work has focused on racial equality, civil rights, and African-American history. Whitaker's 2005 book, Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West, deals with the history of the civil rights movement in Phoenix, with a focus on the lives of Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale.

In 2014, Whitaker was cited in several publications in the wake of the Ferguson shooting speaking about the effect of social media on movements. The Washington Post quoted him in the context of actualization, and Nonprofit Quarterly used the same quote in a roundup article on the biggest nonprofit stories in relation to technology and millennials.

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