Craig Calhoun

About

Craig Calhoun is a University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University, holding joint appointments across multiple schools including the School of Politics and Global Studies, the School of Public Affairs, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the School of Sustainability, the GAME School, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is also a faculty affiliate of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, and the Asia Center. Additionally, Calhoun serves as the Stanley Kelley Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. He actively contributes to the intellectual life of ASU through leadership, teaching, and mentoring roles, including serving as President of the Board of The Melikian Center, chairing faculty advisory boards for the Center for Work and Democracy and Sociology, and holding senior fellowships with the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and the Global Futures Laboratory. In 2026, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on the History of Sociology and Social Thought. Calhoun is a comparative and historical sociologist and social theorist engaged in a broad range of disciplines including anthropology, communications, economics, history, international studies, political science, philosophy, and science and technology studies. His current research focuses on…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Ancient history
• History

Selected publications

• Degenerations of Democracy

  Harvard University Press eBooks · 2022 · 21 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Craig Calhoun, Dilip Gaonkar, and Charles Taylor argue that democracies have embraced individual freedom at the expense of equality and solidarity, economic growth at the expense of democracy. Rebuilding local communities and large-scale institutions is now crucial, with attention to the public good beyond private advantage or ingroup loyalty.

  PublisherDOI

• Degenerations of Democracy

  2022 · 17 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• For Sociology: May Our Arguments Unite Us

  Critical Sociology · 2022-02-03 · 9 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Neither Gods nor Emperors

  2023 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Immanuel Wallerstein and the Genesis of World-Systems Analysis

  Journal of World-Systems Research · 2023-08-22 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Even radical innovations are shaped by historical paths and contexts. They depart from some features, reproduce others, and show the marks of their origins. It takes nothing away from the achievements of remarkable creators, save perhaps individualistic illusions, to note that they are made possible by preparation, pathways, and contributions from many sources.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Judith Butler

  82 shared

• Vince Rafael

  University of Western Australia

  81 shared

• Ranjana Khanna

  81 shared

• James Clifford

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  81 shared

• Michael Salman

  81 shared

• Lydia Liu

  University of California, Los Angeles

  81 shared

• John Kim

  81 shared

• Claire Kramsch

  81 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Oxford University

• Other, Anthropology

  Manchester

• Other, Anthropology

  Columbia

• Other, Anthropology

  University of Southern California

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the British Academy
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Fellow of the American Philosophical Society
• Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Einstein Fellow by the City of Berlin

Similar researchers at Arizona State University

• Osvaldo Salah-114
• Michael Hanemannh-62
• Hallie Eakinh-51