The Haitian Revolution and the Reinvention of Sociology

April 13 Thursday, 4:30pm | Oakley Center

It is largely due to the work of Robert A. Nisbet, author of the canon-defining text, The Sociological Tradition, that sociologists now take it as axiomatic that our discipline is an invention of the French Revolution. It was from the French Revolution that Nisbet derived the five “unit ideas” (community, authority, status, the sacred, and alienation) and their antitheses (society, power, economic class, the secular, and progress) that were to be the foundation of sociology’s conceptual and analytical framework. In so doing he sought to accomplish two aims: to make sociology “a field in and for itself” and to “rescue American sociology from insularity and ethnocentrism.” Admirable goals, indeed. However, Nisbet’s efforts to give sociology “a new awareness of the world as a whole” did not extend beyond Europe. For him, the “broadening and enriching” of American sociology was tantamount to “the Europeanizing of American sociology.”

Join us for a discussion with Zine Magubane, Associate Professor of Sociology in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College, in conversation with Williams’ Chair and Professor of Africana Studies James Manigault-Bryant to discuss how the ‘Africanizing’ of sociology (and the French Revolution) opens up far more possibilities to broaden, deepen, and enrich our discipline.

RSVP here to join the conversation.