Dr. Karl Alexander is the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founder and Director of the Thurgood Marshall Alliance. Before joining Johns Hopkins in 1971, he earned his B.A. from Temple University (1968) and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1972). In this interview, Alexander discusses his dissertation work at UNC and contributions to Hopkins' new Center for Social Organization of Schools in the 1970s. He goes on to detail his work in the sociology of education, which drew from field research in Baltimore, as well as his founding of the Thurgood Marshall Alliance, which aims to improve economic and racial diversity in Baltimore schools. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Dr. Joyce Epstein, who earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Johns Hopkins (1974), is a research professor of education and sociology at the JHU School of Education and director of both the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships and the National Network of Partnership Schools. She discusses joining JHU's Center for Social Organization of Schools in 1974, working with James Coleman, a CSOS project with the Howard County School District, changing technologies and methods for performing quantitative research, challenges of conducting research and partnerships with school districts, and the impact of CSOS during its first 50 years. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral history series.