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Philip Smith

Professor of Sociology

Areas of Interest

Culture/Knowledge; Deviance, Crime and Law; Political Sociology and Social Movements; Theory

Bio

Philip Smith works in the area of cultural sociology and cultural theory. He is responsible for a dozen books and over sixty articles and chapters. His most recent book is Durkheim and After (Polity 2020) which offers an intellectual history of the Durkheimian paradigm from its beginnings until today. Other monographs include Climate Change as Social Drama (Cambridge 2015); Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life (Cambridge 2010); Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War and Suez (Chicago, 2005); and Punishment and Culture (Chicago, 2008). His textbook Cultural Theory: An Introduction (Blackwell 2001) is well known to students globally and has been translated into several languages.

Recent Publications

Books

  • Smith, Philip (2020). Durkheim and After: The Durkheimian Tradition, 1893-2020. Polity Press.
  • Smith, Philip and Nicolas Howe (2015). Climate Change as Social DramaCambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Smith, Philip, Timothy L. Phillips and Ryan D. King (2010). Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Smith, Philip and Alexander Riley (2008). Cultural Theory: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Malden, MA. Blackwell Publishing.
  • Smith, Philip (2008). Punishment and Culture. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
  • Smith, Philip (2005). Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War and Suez. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
  • Alexander, Jeffrey C., and Philip Smith (eds.) (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Courses and Seminars

Undergraduate

  • Sociology of Social Control and Criminal Justice.
  • Introduction to Sociology.
  • Crime and Deviance.
  • Visual Sociology.
  • Public Behaviors and Social Spaces.

Graduate

  • Contemporary Sociological Theory: Durkheimian Sociology.
  • Cultural Sociology.
  • Workshop in Cultural Sociology.
  • Workshop in Advanced Sociological Writing and Research.

Contact Info

philip.smith@yale.edu

+1 (203 ) 432-3773

CV

Education

  • Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993
  • M.A., Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, 1986