Vincent N. Parrillo
William Paterson University
Vincent N. Parrillo is a Fulbright Scholar and professor of sociology at William Paterson University, where he twice received the Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Expression. He is the author of two historical novels: Guardians of the Gate and its sequel, Defenders of Freedom, both about Ellis Island, its staff and immigrants.
In addition, Vince is executive producer, writer and narrator of five award-winning PBS television documentaries: Silk City Artists and Musicians; Paterson and Its People; Ellis Island: Gateway to America; Smokestacks and Steeples: A Portrait of Paterson; and Gaetano Federici: The Sculptor Laureate of Paterson.
The General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Problems (Sage) , his scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as Social Science Journal, Sociological Forum, Journal of Human Rights, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, and Small Group Behavior, and some of them have been published in nine languages (Chinese, Czech, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, or Vietnamese). He is a past vice president of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS) and its past ESS Robin M. Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer.
An internationally recognized expert on immigration, Vince has been an invited lecturer to dozens of universities in Asia, Canada, Europe, and the United States, including Romanian-American University in 2006. He has also has gone on numerous assignments for the State Department’s former U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and current International Information Program (IIP) to confer with national leaders in Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden on issues relating to immigration and intergroup tensions. He has also been the keynote speaker at international conferences in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, and South Korea. In Spring 2010 he was a visiting scholar at the University of Liege, Belgium, as well as a visiting scholar at the University of Pisa in Fall 2006 and Spring 1998. In addition, he has conducted diversity training sessions for NCOs and senior army officers at various military bases.
Active in regional theater as an actor in many plays, he has also directed dozens of plays of every genre. In 2003, he directed a cast of Broadway stars (including four Tony Award nominees) in a staged reading of the rock opera Hamlet (he is co-lyricist) at the Lamb’s Theatre in New York City, and in 2005 he co-produced its world premiere in Prague. In October 2007, it premiered in Seoul to rave reviews and enthusiastic audience responses, and it is still running there. As Artistic Director for Bergen Shakespeare, he directed The Comedy of Errors at Bergen County’s Overpeck Park in Summer 2015.
