Contemporary Sociologist
Honoring, Celebrating, and Commemorating the Historical Contributions of Influential Sociologists, Past and Present
Final Research Project - Completed by Vicky Knickerbocker, University of Minnesota student participant in the 2004 Zoryan Summer Institute
Download the research paper (PDF).
Introduction
I undertook this research activity to find out more information about contemporary sociologists because I wanted to increase my future students' knowledge of the historical contributions of sociologists. Most of the "Introduction to Sociology" books I have used in the past to teach community college students provide only a brief overview of the major contributions of early, pioneer sociologists. Typically, these short historical narratives provide biographic information about a limited number of influential sociologists including Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Addams, W.E.B. Dubois, Mead and Cooley but seldom pay tribute to more modern day sociologists. Subsequently, the more inquisitive students are asking, "are there any important sociologists living today?"
Given the fact that I am also employed as an Outreach Educator at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, I have decided to focus this research endeavor on finding out more about the role current sociologists have played in addressing genocidal issues and concerns. The five modern day sociologists I have chosen to research are: Taner Akcam, Vahakn N. Dadrian, Lynn Rapaport, Eric Markusen, and Nehama Tec.
- Vicky Knickerbocker
Informational Snapshots
Taner Akcam - Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota
"Turkish officials have been unwilling to acknowledge a genocide occurred because to do so would suggest that the founders of modern day Turkey were villains and murders rather than revered heroes."
At the U of M, Akcam teaches history students about genocide—its origins, its consequences, and its repercussions. Previously, Dr. Akçam held the position of Research Scientist in Sociology, at the Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, and was a Visiting Scholar at the Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn and a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Considered a social dissident by some, he is the first Turkish scholar to use the word "genocide" to describe the massive extermination of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey between the years of 1915 and 1917. As the editor-in-chief of a student journal, Akcam was arrested in 1976 and sentenced to 10-year's imprisonment because of some articles he wrote about the Kurdish issue and other social problems of Turkey. One year later, he managed to escaped and fled to Germany as a political refugee. Since the 1990's, Akcam has maintained the Turkish government’s refusal to declare what happened in Armenia a "genocide" grossly misrepresents what happened to the Armenian people. Subsequently, he has conducted sociological research and used sociological analysis to prove otherwise.
Genocide and Human Rights University Program
Vahakn N. Dadrian - Contemporary Sociologist and Genocide Scholar
"Because the denial is a function of impunity, people who escape punishment become defiant, become very bold in terms of rationalizing the crime, and most importantly, they embolden, by way of political contagion, other potential perpetrators."
Vahakn N. Dadrian received his undergraduate and graduate education in Europe at the University of Berlin (mathematics), the University of Vienna (history) and the University of Zurich (international law). His training in the U.S. was in the social sciences, culminating with a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Currently, Dadrian is the Director of Genocide Research with the Zoryan Institute in Canada, a research center dedicated to promoting greater knowledge about the history, politics, society, and culture of Armenia and Armenians around the world. Darian has spent most of his life researching, writing and lecturing on the subjects of genocide theory, comparative genocide, and the Armenian Genocide because he believes the denial of the Armenian Genocide is based on false arguments and benefits no one except its perpetrators and potential perpetrators. Professor Dadrian also contends that even though the Armenian Genocide has not been given the prominent treatment of the Jewish Holocaust which preceded it, a study of the Armenian Genocide is imperative as it offers new insights into the mechanisms that make genocide possible in the modern world.
Genocide and Human Rights University Program
Lynn Rapaport - Sociology Instructor at Pomona College
"Some of the critics only want to see Hitler as a monster, but he is also a human being, and the scary part is how human beings can turn into monsters."
Since 1989, Lynn has taught at this college in Claremont, California. She is currently the chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department and teaches sociology courses about social stratification, race and ethnicity, culture, gender, and sociological theory. She has also conducted research in the areas of Genocide, Holocaust Studies, and Sociology of Culture which has led her to publish several scholarly essays and one book, Jews in Germany After the Holocaust: Memory, Identity, and Jewish-German Relations. This book which presents a unique perspective about how the memory of the Holocaust has shaped and influenced Jewish identity after World War II ended garnered Lynn a distinguished book award from the American Sociological Association in 1998.
A more recent publication authored by Rapaport (2002) addresses the topic of Holocaust Remembrance and raises critical questions about how well popular culture depicts this historical event. In this article, entitled "Hollywood's Holocaust: Schindler's List and the Construction of Memory" provides a scholarly critique of the popular film, Schindler's List. According to Rapaport, one of the most important tasks facing future educators will be to help their students become more media savvy and less influenced by negative stereotyping, overly simplistic explanations of historical events, and distorted representations of individuals and groups of people.
Eric Markusen - University of Minnesota Graduate, (Ph.D., '86)
"You can't understand what you don't know about."
In January 2001, Markusen became the Research Director at the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Copenhagen (DCHF). The purpose of the DCHF is to conduct independent, interdisciplinary research on the Holocaust, including its specific Danish aspects, to study other cases of genocide, to develop methods of prevention of genocide, and to inform about these issues. To accept this appointment, Markusen left his full-time teaching responsibilities at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota where he has been a tenured professor of Sociology and Social Work since 1991.
For the last 20 years Eric has used his sociological expertise to research, document, and educate about the existence of human rights violations, genocide-related atrocities, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and the plight of refugees throughout the world. The quest to understand "the genocidal mentality" has taken Markusen to Nazi death camps, former Soviet satellites, the killing fields of Cambodia, the bombed out villages of Croatia and Bosnia and the war-torn border of Ethiopia/Eritrea. According to Markusen, there is no turning back when one becomes aware of the sheer numbers of men, women, and children slaughtered by their fellow human beings in the last century. He contends that educating the public is vital as you can't understand what you don't know about.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Williams, Sarah (Nov., 2000)
Nechama Tec - Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, Stamford Campus
"It is only natural and expected that those who studied the tragic events focused first on the typical experience rather than the rare exception."
Tec has conducted a great deal of research about the Holocaust and written extensively about its sociological and psychological implications. She has authored over fifty scholarly articles and has published 5 books which have added immensely to our knowledge of how compassion, altruism, cooperation, and self-preservation are historically linked to Holocaust rescue, resistance and survival.
To further increase the public's knowledge of the Holocaust and the important life lessons it teaches, Tec lectures at many national and international meetings/conferences, works collaboratively with many educational foundations and organizations, like Facing History and Ourselves, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, and the Anti-Defamation League to provide quality teachers' training and teaching materials, and serves on prominent advisory boards including the Academic Advisory Committee at the Center for Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. For over 30 years, Tec, a Holocaust survivor has shared the lessons that can be learned from the past with many diverse audiences in an attempt to teach people more constructive ways of relating to and interacting with one another.