CRITIQUE Sociology Seminar Series – (Re)visiting Classical Sociological Theory, 3 October 2024 – 17 April 2025, 4:00pm

What makes an academic article a classic? By metrics, it’s citations. And while what’s considered acceptable and what might be accepted in top journals – as well as the sheer number of journals – has changed, the theoretical contributions of these articles have important and in some cases problematic legacies worth understanding to contextualize their continuous relevance.

In this series, each month we will revisit (or perhaps visit for the first time) one of these articles, unpack its historical significance, and discuss its impact on subsequent and contemporary scholarship within and outside of the discipline. A faculty member whose work engages with the article or its subdiscipline will introduce it, discuss its contributions in the context of its era of publication, and chart its legacy on scholarship through the decades before transitioning to group discussion. Attendees are not required (but would benefit from) reading the article and are encouraged to consider how it may have influenced their own work. All will leave the seminar edified with a classic under their belt.