SOAN Jan 2017 Colloquium: Autobiographic Notes on Public Sociology

Speaker: Dr. Rutledge M. Dennis

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM EST
# B313

Public Sociology is currently a popular topic among sociologists.  If we adopt a simple definition of the term to mean an engaged sociologist who teaches, writes, and speaks on a variety of public issues and concerns, we know we can trace the meaning and use of the idea back to scholars such as Dewey, Veblen, and Du Bois who addressed audiences within and beyond the academy on social issues of local, national, and international importance.  My presentation, Autobiographic Notes on Public Sociology, takes a Du Boisian approach, some might add, a Millsian approach, in understanding how individuals respond to structural domination, and how they, with others , attempt to alter and re-shape structures, ideologies, and situations so as to create alternative paradigms. A case can be made that public sociology existed long before we were aware of such an idea existing.   

This presentation will highlight the following perspectives on the public sociologist:  The Graduate Student as Public Sociologist with the public consisting of fellow students, faculty, and administrators; the University professor as public sociologist in which the public consists of students, other faculty members, and administrators; the University professor as public sociologist with the public as a community outside of the university.  Though the narrative is autobiographic, it is important to understand that issues, problems, and other concerns drive the autobiographic narrative, not the reverse.