I am an assistant professor in the sociology department at Brandeis University. I received my PhD from the University of Notre Dame where I was fortunate to work with Lyn Spillman and Omar Lizardo. Born and raised in Wyoming on a ranch, the first 18 years of my life resembled something vaguely like this, but with fewer awe-inspiring mountains, more wind/less snow, both sheep and cows at first, and then only cows (for metabolic rift reasons I think).
My research and teaching interests are broadly concerned with social theory, culture and morality. Once upon a time I really believed in the old bios theoretikos. At the moment, I'm more inclined toward theory as simply giving articulation to what cannot (ever) be theoretical. I'm also a fan of small pleasures like theory that develops and critiques concepts that are useful (or not) for the practice of social research. Much of my work is historical, but I like to think of history as representing more a substantive claim about the social world than one method among others. My current research follows this line of thinking and examines social justice as a historical entity rather than a philosophical, moral or legal ideal. I want to claim that this makes a great deal of difference in how we understand the motivation for moral action and our efforts to create progressive social change. More on this to come.
I also co-founded and add high content (citations included!) blogs at culturecog.blog/