Freud as a Social and Cultural Theorist: On Human Nature and the Civilizing Process

Howard L. Kaye, Emeritus Professor Sociology, Franklin & Marshall College

Routledge, 2019

"This book offers a new account of Freud's work by reading him as the social theorist and philosopher he always aspired to be. In doing so, the author demonstrates that Freud's social, moral, and cultural thought constitutes the core of his life's work as a theorist, and is the thread that binds his voluminous writings together: from his earliest  essays on the neuroses, to his foundational writings on dreams and sexuality, and to his far-ranging reflections on art, religion, and the dynamics of culture. Returning to the fundamental questions and concerns that animate Freud's work--the nature of evil; the origins of religion, morality, and tradition; the looming threat of resurgent barbarism--Freud as a Social and Cultural Theorist provides the first systematic re-examination of Freud's social and cultural thought in more than a generation. As such, it will be of interest to social and cultural theorists, social philosophers, intellectual and cultural historians, and those with interests in psychoanalysis and its origins."

Congratulations to Associate Professor Carey Faulkner!

The Sociology Department is very pleased to announce that Dr. Carey Faulkner has earned tenure.

Dr. Faulkner’s research revolves around matters of belonging.  Her work has been guided by this larger question: How do individuals who cross different kinds of borders integrate into their places of destination?  In her previous research, Dr. Faulkner focused on families who crossed international borders.  She investigated how national origin and gender shaped integration experiences among children of immigrants in her dissertation research.  This research later culminated in her book Economic Mobility and Cultural Assimilation among Children of Immigrants (2011, LFB Scholarly Publishing). 

Her more recent work still centers on belonging, but she has shifted her attention to a border that is not international but is still marked by religious, cultural, and social differences: the Amish-English “border.”  Dr. Faulkner’s current research focuses on individuals who have left Old Order Amish communities.  In this work, she explores how social factors—including gender—shape their experiences of border crossing and incorporation into their communities of destination.  This project speaks to broader issues of religious change and provides a useful framework for understanding how social forces shape various kinds of border crossings.

B.A., University of Virginia; M.S. and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Madison

Congratulations to Associate Professor Amy Singer! 

The Sociology Department is very pleased to announce that Dr. Amy Singer has earned tenure.

Professor Singer comes to F&M from the faculty of Knox College. Her dissertation research looks at US children’s novels, and subsequent published work investigates the possibility that the early children’s book divisions of American publishing companies were making covertly feminist choices.

As a cultural sociologist, her postdoctoral research fellowship explored the ways that European film festivals function as high-stakes international marketplaces while being staffed primarily by unpaid volunteers. Her current research investigates the global flow of commodities and culture through an examination of two distinctive Indonesian foods—Balinese sea salt and Javanese cashews—and the two businesses that bring them to market in the United States. Issues of sustainability, power, and capital exist on both sides of this project, and each relates to issues of food production and commodification.

B.A., Smith College, 1996; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Washington, 2005

Welcome to Assistant Professor Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Dr. Firuzeh Shokooh Valle is has joined the Sociology Department as a new, tenure-track assistant professor. Professor Shokooh Valle is a specialist in the sociologies of gender, development, and technology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northeastern University, with a dissertation entitled, "Dreaming in the Future: The Gendered Technopolitics of Development," a master's degree in journalism, also from Northeastern, and her B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico. Her research examines how development policy frames the relationships between gender and technology, and how these policies are being contested by local and transnational women's organizations in Latin America. Her academic work has been published in Social Movement Studies, Sociology of Development, and elsewhere.

Dr. Shokooh Valle is also a journalist, and as a reporter, she covered violence against women and gender politics, racism, poverty and socioeconomic development, and migration in her homeland, Puerto Rico. Her journalistic work has been published and edited widely in Puerto Rico and online, and she has won multiple investigative journalism awards.

Professor Shokooh Valle is one of the illustrious members of the first cohort of Mellon-High Impact Emerging Scholars. She will be teaching Sociology of Gender, taking over that course from Professor Carol Auster, and also Sociological Theory, Intro, and other upper-level classes.

Please say hello when you see her and welcome her to the department!

Welcome to Visiting Assistant Professor Bryan C. Cannon

Dr. Bryan C. Cannon is our new visiting assistant professor. He recently earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Georgia, with a dissertation entitled, "The Conversational Loop: Status in Conversational Processes and Conversational Processes in Status." He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Western Kentucky University. Professor Cannon's areas of scholarly interest include small group processes, identity, gender, social networks, culture, quantitative methods, and conversation analysis. His present research includes projects focusing on gender inequality and occurrences of overlapping talk during task group interactions; the impact of formal position, legitimization, and gender on turn-taking patterns during conversation; and a number of collaborative projects focusing on mathematical methods of identity and behavior.

Professor Cannon will be teaching Introduction to Sociology, Social Psychology, Sociology of Music, and possibly other upper-level courses as well.