Hello!

I am a Professor of sociology at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. I received my PhD from Rutgers University.

In my research, I blend insights from cultural sociology, symbolic interactionism, formal sociology, other sociological theories. I specialize in the study of cognition, memory, time, knowledge, autobiography, identity, and trauma.

My latest book, Anonymous: The Performance of Hidden Identities (University of Chicago Press) explores the phenomenon of anonymity and the impact of anonymous actors in various social situations and interactions. For this book, I won the Theory Prize from the American Sociological Association and the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

My first book, Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery (University of Chicago Press) explores the stories people tell about life-changing discoveries of “truth” and illuminates the ways that individuals and communities use autobiographical stories to weigh in on salient moral and political controversies. I also won the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction for this book.

In addition to my books, I have published articles in Social Psychology Quarterly, Symbolic Interaction, Sociological Forum, and the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, along with several chapters in various edited volumes. I am co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism (with Wayne H. Brekhus and William Ryan Force), as well as Interpreting Contentious Memory: Countermemories and Social Conflicts over the Past (with Janet Jacobs, published by Bristol University Press), and I am co-series editor of a twelve volume book series titled Interpretive Lenses in Sociology (with Julie B. Wiest, published by Bristol University Press).