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 contemporary transformations and possible futures related to the political economy of the modern world-system, universities and knowledge institutions, democracy, and shifting structures of social solidarity from local communities to nations, transnational relations, and regional reorganizations. Philosophically, he explores the relationship between transformation and transcendence in understanding human existence. He has authored nine books and edited more than twenty, with over 150 peer-reviewed papers, articles, and chapters. His recent editorial work includes The Green New Deal and the Future of Work and widely used anthologies of Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Ancient history
• History

Selected publications

• Making majorities ethnic

  Ethnicities · 2025-12-23

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Can Empowered Citizens Save Democracy?

  The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville · 2024-12-01

  article

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

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