Stephen J Pfohl
Professor
Biography
My scholarly passions have long been sparked by critical analyses of the ritual intersections between culture, history, and social power. Animated by an amalgam of interpretive, poststructuralist, feminist, social psychoanalytic, global economic, and critical race theories, this approach to the sociological imagination has led me to research a diverse, yet interrelated, set of topics. These include analyses of the “discovery” of child abuse; the social construction of psychiatric diagnoses of “dangerousness;” the historical specificity of theories and policy initiatives pertaining to crime, deviance and social control; the global emergence of ultramodern forms of power, resistance, and change; the relationship between public sociology and classroom pedagogy; and, more recently, affinities and tensions between the realms of magic, religion, and technology. I am currently completing work on a multiple-volume study of the origins and systemic impact of new global technologies of cybernetic social power. Of particular importance to this investigation is the cultural, political, and economic power of suggestive communicative technologies that produce mesmerizing streams of fascination and fear. In recent years, I have also created and collaborated on variety of mixed-media sociological performances and video-texts, exploring the sensory contours, social-psychic constraints, and imaginative new pathways for social justice engendered by contemporary digital culture.
Official evaluation summary
No source-backed aggregate instructor rating is available yet.