Wallerstein's Legacies: Restructuring Social Sciences, Sociology as Radical Politics, and the Perspective of the World

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 - 1:30pm to 3:00pm

UMass Amherst | Thompson 919 - Rossi Room

Immanuel Wallerstein (10/28/1930 - 9/31/2019), was one of the leading figures of twentieth century social theory and research. This presentation by Agustín Lao-Montes (Associate Professor of Sociology, UMass Amherst) will highlight Wallerstein's main contributions as a social scientist and intellectual-activist through his long career, since he was a young professor of sociology at Columbia University in the 1960s. It will focus on three key dimensions of Wallerstein's rich and diverse intellectual production and historical legacies: first, his leadership in international efforts to restructure the social sciences beyond what he called "the 19th C paradigm"; second, his life-long agency toward making sociology a type of critical theory and a sort of radical politics; and third, his profound methodological and empirical contributions to developing historical sociology from "the perspective of the world."

Dr. Lao-Montes' talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology Colloquium and Special Events Committee, the Critical Social Studies Workshop, and the Institute for Social Science Research at UMass Amherst. Refreshments will be provided.

Agustin Lao-Montes has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York–Binghamton. His fields of specialty include world-historical sociology and globalization, political sociology, social identities and social inequalities, sociology of race and ethnicity, urban sociology/community-university partnerships, African Diaspora and Latino Studies, sociology of culture and cultural studies, and contemporary theory and postcolonial critique.