Areas of Scholarly Emphasis

Although research interests are in a sense unique to each faculty member, the Department of Sociology emphasizes four scholarly areas in its teaching and research:

  1. The historical and comparative study of major institutions and social processes – for example, political and economic development, social movements, religion, nationalism, and ethnic relations – in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
  2. The study of the sociology of culture, including sociology of knowledge and intellectuals, political culture, religion, the culture of work, education and socialization, comparative moral cultures, or the cultural dimensions of ethnicity, gender, and class.
  3. The study of science, technology and medicine, including the historical sociology of scientific knowledge and practice, science and the state, science and social movements, science and social control, the scientific revolution, et cetera.
  4. The study of social inequalities including those based on class, gender, race, language, citizenship and sexuality.

Faculty and Their Research Interests

BIERNACKI, RICHARD G. (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1988; Associate Professor) Culture, Theory, Qualitative Methods, European Labor and Contract

BINDER, AMY J.  (Ph.D., Northwestern, 1998; Associate Professor)  Sociology of Culture, Education, Conservative Social Movements, Organizations

BLAIR-LOY, MARY F.  (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1997; Associate Professor, Director of Center for Research on Gender in the Professions) Sociology of Gender, Culture, Inequality, Work and Organizations, Family

EVANS, IVAN T.  (Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1986; Associate Professor) African Studies, Political Sociology, Ethnic and Race Relations, Social Movements, Sociology of the Environment

EVANS, JOHN H. (Ph.D., Princeton, 1998; Associate Professor)  Sociology of Culture, Knowledge, Religion, Medicine, Bioethics, Politics

FITZGERALD, DAVID  (Ph.D., UCLA, 2005; Associate Professor) International Migration, Political Sociology, Nationalism and Ethnicity, Comparative-Historical and Ethnographic Methodology

GOLDMAN, HARVEY S. (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1978; Professor)  Sociology of Knowledge and of Intellectuals, Theory, Sociology of Culture

HAYDU, JEFFREY M.  (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1984; Professor)  Social Movements, Comparative-Historical Methods,  Class Relations, Food

JULES-ROSETTE, BENNETTA W.  (Ph.D., Harvard, 1973; Professor)  Sociology of Religion, Knowledge, Culture, Art, Ethnographic Film, African Studies; directs African and African -American Studies

KLATCH, REBECCA E.  (Ph.D., Harvard, 1984; Professor)  Sociology of Gender, Masculinities, Family, Social Psychology/Identities, Race, American Society

LAMPLAND, MARTHA (Ph.D. Anthropology, Chicago, 1987; Associate Professor)  Political Economy, Social and Cultural History, Science Studies, Central Europe (Hungary)

LINTON, APRIL  (Ph.D., Washington, 2002; Assistant Professor) Immigration, Trade and Development

MADSEN, RICHARD P. (Ph.D., Harvard, 1977; Professor)  Sociology of Ideas/Culture, Theory, Political Sociology, Chinese Society, Sociology of Religion, “Moral Anthropology”

MARTIN, ISAAC W. (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 2003; Associate Professor)  Fiscal Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements

MEDVETZ, THOMAS M.   (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 2007; Assistant Professor) Knowledge & Intellectuals, Political Sociology, Theory, Cultural Sociology

MEHAN, HUGH B.  (Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, 1971; Professor)  Discourse Processes, Sociology of Education, Educational Inequalities, Directs CREATE

NG, KWAI H.  (Ph.D., Chicago, 2004; Assistant Professor)  Sociology of Law, Sociology of Language, Social Theory, Religion

PHILLIPS, DAVID P.  (Ph.D., Princeton, 1970; Professor)  Demography, Epidemiology, Medical Errors, Suicide, Accidents, Homicide, Mass Media

RONA-TAS, AKOS (Ph.D., Michigan, 1990; Associate Professor) Economic Sociology, Risk Analysis Comparative Social Stratification, Post-Communist Societies, Methodology

SCULL, ANDREW T.  (Ph.D., Princeton, 1974; Professor)  Historical, Psychiatry, Medicine, Social Control, Professions, Theory

SHAFIR, GERSHON   (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1980; Professor) Comparative Historical & Political Sociology; Citizenship and Human Rights; Middle East; Sociological Theory

SKRENTNY, JOHN D.  (Ph.D., Harvard, 1994; Professor)  Political Sociology, Law and Society, Immigration, Human Rights, Comparative-Historical, East Asia

THORPE, CHARLES   (Ph.D., UC San Diego, 2001; Associate Professor) Sociology of Science and Technology, Sociology of Intellectuals, Social Theory

TURNER, CHRISTENA L.  (Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford, 1987; Associate Professor)  Japanese Society, Culture, Everyday Life, Organizations, Chinese Society, Work

WAISMAN, CARLOS H.  (Ph.D., Harvard, 1977; Professor)  Political Sociology, Development, Theory

ZAMOSC, LEON  (Ph.D., University of Manchester-England, 1983; Associate Professor)  Latin American Societies, Political Economy, Development, Social Movements, Research Methods, Ethnicity, Rural Sociology

 

Adjunct Professors

ESPIRITU, YEN (Ph.D., UC Los Angeles, 1990; Professor/Chair Ethnic Studies, Adjunct Professor Sociology)

War and Refugee Studies; Asian American Studies; Race, Class and Gender; and Comparative Ethnic and Race Relations

WALSHOK, MARY L. (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1969; Assoc VC Extended Studies, Adjunct Professor Sociology)
Occupations and Professions, Women and Work, Education and the Economy

Professors Emeriti

BLUMBERG, RAE LESSER (Ph.D., Northwestern, 1970; Professor Emeritus)
Gender Stratification, Gender and Third World Development, Family, Comparative Sociology

CICOUREL, AARON V. (Ph.D., Cornell, 1957; Professor Emeritus)
Socialization, Sociolinguistics, Medical Discourse and Diagnostic Reasoning

DOUGLAS, JACK D. (Ph.D., Princeton, 1969: Professor Emeritus)
Deviance, Theory, Social Economics, History of Social Thought, Field Methods

GUSFIELD, JOSEPH R. (Ph.D., Chicago, 1954; Professor Emeritus)
Social Movements, Sociology of Law, Deviance and Social Control, Social Construction of Knowledge, Social Problems, Theory

WISEMAN, JACQUELINE P. (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1968; Professor Emeritus)
Social Psychology, Socialization, Marriage and Family, Research Methods, Deviance, Alcoholism, Sex Roles, Sociology of Emotions, Social and Personal Relationships, Social Psychology of Interior and Exterior Environments