Power, History and Society
Power, History and Society (PHS), was created in 2005 by a small group of graduate students with Mounira Maya Charrad as faculty advisor. It is a faculty and student network dedicated to promoting discussion and collaboration in political sociology. Opening a space for the exchange of ideas and up-to-date research, it brings together faculty and students from the Department of Sociology and other departments at UT. PHS members include faculty and graduate students with diverse intellectual and international backgrounds interested in conversations on socio-political issues in the US and abroad. Our primary goal is to build an intellectual community -- supportive and collaborative -- around key issues of political sociology such as power, states, social movements, gender politics, identity politics, and more.
Our members exchange feedback on papers, grant applications and dissertation proposals. We invite guest speakers from other departments or universities to present their work. Previous speakers have included Randall Collins, Theda Skocpol, Myra Marx Ferree, Charles Kurzman and Ann Swidler. We also organize panels with our own faculty and graduate students on theoretical or methodological issues in the field. PHS occasionally develops subgroups around issues of common interest such as study groups for the preparation of comps in political sociology. Another example is the Middle East Working Group, which became an interdisciplinary hub for research on the region. PHS faculty and students use diverse methodologies, ranging from ethnography and interviews to the analysis of documents and comparative historical methods. Some of our members identify primarily as political sociologists, while many others are scholars with research interests that intersect with political sociology broadly defined.
If you are interested in joining the group, please email us.
Graduate Student Coordinators: Dorothy Rau (dorothyrau@utexas.edu), Daniel Krasnicki (daniel.krasnicki@austin.utexas.edu)
Faculty Advisor: Mounira Maya Charrad (charrad@utexas.edu)
