American Sociological Association, History of Sociology Section

 

2019, American Sociological Association, History of Sociology Section,  Lifetime Achievement Award Norbert Wiley, Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois. Throughout his long and successful career, Professor Wiley has produced several dozens of texts, a considerable number of which have become cornerstones in scholarly fields concerned with the history of sociology and social theory in America. Yet, his interests were never with history per se. From his 1979 chapter on “The Rise and Fall of Dominating Theories in American Sociology” to his more recent papers on the Chicago tradition of social thought (“A Mead-Cooley Merger,” and “The Chicago School: A Political Interpretation,” both from 2011), Professor Wiley’s writing has been characterized by an outstanding ability to integrate historical and theoretical argumentation in a way that allows both sides to profit from each other. This quality turns Professor Wiley’s works into pioneering exemplars of scholarship that show how to circumvent the restrictions that result from the boundaries that are drawn and re-drawn virtually every day between disciplines as well as between disciplinary subfields. Committee: Christian Daye (chair), Gary Alan Fine, Paul Joosse, and Kristin Luker