Steven J. Diner

Steven J. Diner

Email

sdiner [at] rutgers.edu

Phone

973-353-2508

Office Location

420 Conklin Hall
175 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102

Research Interests: U.S. Urban History, U.S. Immigration History, History of American Higher Education, U.S. Progressive Era.

University Professor Steven J. Diner served as chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark from July 2002 to December 2011. He devoted himself to building Rutgers-Newark as a leading urban research university. Under his leadership, Rutgers-Newark has built strong ties between the campus and the local community. During every year of his tenure as chancellor, Rutgers-Newark was named number one in racial/ethnic diversity among national universities by U.S. News and World Report, and was named number one in 2011 by Forbes Magazine in its first diversity ranking. To take advantage of this extraordinary diversity, he initiated faculty development workshops on how to use classroom diversity as a teaching tool, and he also began outcomes assessment to determine the impact of the campus diversity on students. He is the immediate past president of the Coalition of Urban & Metropolitan Universities.

Steven Diner came to Rutgers with a lifelong interest in cities, race, ethnicity and immigration, and the connections between universities and cities, both past and present. After completing a PhD in History at the University of Chicago, he began his career at the University of the District of Columbia, where he taught in and chaired the Department of Urban Studies.  In 1985, he went to George Mason University, where he served as Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Associate Senior Vice President. He joined Rutgers-Newark in 1998 as Dean of Arts & Sciences.

Dr. Diner’s publications include A City and Its Universities (1980), Housing Washington’s People (1984), A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era  (1998), and Universities and Their Cities: Urban Higher Education in America (2017).

Courses Taught

History of Urban Education
U.S. Immigration History
Newark and Urban America
Racial, Ethnic, Religious Diversity and Public Policy

Subjects

U.S. History
Public Policy

Awards

Leadership Newark - Outstanding Community Partner Award, 2004

Newark Regional Business Partnership Champion of Newark Award, 2011

American Conference on Diversity Humanitarian Award, 2012

International Youth Organization Education/Business Partner Award, 2006

Rutgers-Newark Organization of Black Faculty and Staff Justice William O. Douglass Award, 2011

Newark Now Spirit of Newark Award, 2010

Babyland Family Services Educational Award, 2006

Workforce Opportunity Services Award, 2011

Eastern College Athletic Conference Award of Appreciation, 2005

Scholarly Open Access at Rutgers Award of Thanks, 2010

Education

Ph.D., The University of Chicago

Expertise

Higher Education policy and management

Publications

Books (See CV for full listing of publications)

UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR CITIES: URBAN HIGHER EDUCATION INCAMERICA. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.    

MANAGING THE NATION'S CAPITAL: THE EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICE OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Edited with Helen Young. Washington, D.C.: UDC Center for Applied Research and Urban Policy, 1986.
HOUSING WASHINGTON'S PEOPLE: PUBLIC POLICY IN RETROSPECT. Edited with Helen Young. Washington, D.C.: D.C. History and Public Policy Project, 1983.

A CITY AND ITS UNIVERSITIES: PUBLIC POLICY IN CHICAGO, 1982 - 1919. University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

COMPASSION AND RESPONSIBILITY: READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY. Edited with Frank R.Bruel. University of Chicago Press, 1980.

THE CENTER OF A METROPOLIS: WASHINGTON SINCE 1954. [Textbook for District of Columbia Public Schools] Washington, D.C.: Associates for Renewal in Education, 1980.

Associated Programs

School of Public Affairs and Administration - Public Policy Program

Urban Systems PhD