Faculty Books
Wendy Espeland
Professor
1808 Chicago Avenue
Room 207
Phone: (847) 467-1252
wne741@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:
Wednesday 1:00-3:00
Areas of Interest
Cultural Sociology
Organizations-formal/complex
Qualitative Methodology
Relevant Link
Biography
Professor Wendy Espeland works in the areas of organizations, culture, and law. Her book, The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality and Identity in the American Southwest was awarded the Best Book Prize by the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, the Rachel Carson Award from the Society for the Social Studies of Science, and the Louis Brownlow Book Award from the National Academy of Public Administration.
Espeland is currently writing a book about the effects of commensuration, the process of translating qualities into quantities. In it she investigates how media rankings have influenced higher education, how efforts to measure homosexuality have shaped gay and lesbian politics, and the commensurative practices necessary in order to transform air pollution into a commodity that is traded on futures markets.
Courses Taught
SOCIOL 101: Freshman Seminar: Chicago Landscapes
SOCIOL 306: Sociological Theory
SOCIOL 406-2: Contemporary Theory in Sociological Analysis Syllabus
Books
Fear of Falling: How Media Rankings Changed Legal Education in America (with Michael Sauder). Forthcoming, Russell Sage Foundation.
The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest
University Chicago Press, 1998
Publications
How Rankings Affect Diversity, Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, 2009
Rating the Rankings (with Michael Sauder), Contexts, 2009
A Sociology of Quantification (with Mitchell Stevens), European Journal of Sociology, 2009
The Discipline of Rankings: Tight Coupling and Organizational Change (with Michael Sauder), American Sociological Review, 2009
Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds
(with Michael Sauder); American Journal of Sociology, 2007
Accountability, Quantification and Law (with Berit Vannebo), Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2007
William Henry Exum Award
The intent of this prize is to honor the memory of William Henry Exum, a member of the Department of Sociology and the African American Studies Department, who died in 1986 at the age of 37. Exum was concerned with the quality of writing and research analysis in student papers. He was also interested in racial problems facing minority youths in higher education. This award was established as a means of continuing his goals of breaking barriers for all minorities.
The award submission deadline is April 27, 2012. All interested students should submit a 15-20 page paper, typed and double-spaced, on a topic dealing with race and ethnicity. Students are not limited to a sociological approach in preparing their submissions, nor is the award limited to sociology or social science majors.
The paper should include a cover sheet with the student's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, year in school, and major.
Three copies of the essay must be submitted by the announced deadline to the Exum Award - Department of Sociology, 1810 Chicago Ave., Evanston Campus or one copy by email to sociol@northwestern.edu.
This award is open to all undergraduate students from all disciplines.
Upcoming Events
COLLOQUIUM: Myra Marx Ferree, Sociology, University of WI-Madison
May 17, 2012 • 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Culture and Society Workshop
May 17, 2012 • 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
