Irene Taviss Thomson

Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Department of Social Sciences and History
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Florham/Madison Campus

• E-mail: thomson@fdu.edu

EDUCATION AND JOB HISTORY:
 
B.A. in Sociology - Brooklyn College, CUNY
Ph.D. in Sociology - Harvard University

After receiving my Ph.D., I worked for six years as a Research Associate to the Harvard University Program on Technology and Society.  For two years thereafter I was a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University.  I then taught for 32 years at Fairleigh Dickinson.


RESEARCH INTERESTS:

 
My research interests revolve around the relationships between self and society and the changing meanings of individualism, conformity, and community in American culture.  My current research involves an analysis of the "culture wars" as expressed in political journalism between 1980 and 2000.

My most recent publications are: In Conflict No Longer. Self and Society in Contemporary America (Rowman & Littlefield, Inc., 2000); "Mass Society" in Encyclopedia of Community, Edited by Karen Christenson and David Levinson (Sage Publications, 2003); and "The Theory That Won't Die: From Mass Society To The Decline of Social Capital," Sociological Forum, September 2005.