This invited chapter was published in Canadian Sociologists in the First Person, a book co-edited by Stephen Riggins and Neil McLaughlin and published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW
In February 2010, Elaine Coburn, co-editor of the journal Socialist Studies at the time, interviewed me at some length. The transcript is available here.

Key Passages

1952    Born close to Washington, D.C.

1968     Immigrated to Canada

1971     Graduated from Medway High School, Arva Ontario

1975     Graduated from Brock University with Honours B.A. in Sociology

1976     Received M.A. in Sociology from York University

1981     Received Ph.D. in Sociology from York University

1981     Appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria

1987     Promoted to Associate Professor

1987-8 Study Leave: Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam

1993     Promoted to Professor

1994-5 Study Leave: Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Humanities, Griffith University, Brisbane

1994-7   Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Contemporary Social and Political Thought

1999   Visiting Scholar, Kanazawa State University, Japan

2000-1   Study Leave: Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS)

2000-3   Editor, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology

2003-6   Director of the Graduate Program in Sociology, University of Victoria

2006-9   Co-Chair of the Canadian Studies Program Committee, University of Victoria

2008-12  Director of the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Program in Social Justice Studies,  University of Victoria

2012-13  Study Leave: field work in South America, Europe, Africa, South and East Asia, Australia and North America

2010-14  President, Research Committee 02 Economy and Society, International Sociological  Association

2014-15  Programme Co-chair, Society for Socialist Studies

2015     Study leave; began co-directing The Corporate mapping Project, with Shannon Daub of CCPA-BC as Co-Director

2018     Visiting Professor, Institute of Sociology, University of Duisburg-Essen

2018-23 Vice-President, Research Committee 07 Futures Sociology, International Sociological Association

2020 Elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada

Awards

2022 Canadian Review of Sociology Best Article Award, Canadian Sociological Association, for “Mapping the Environmental Field: Networks of Foundations, ENGOs and Think Tanks,” with Nick Graham and Mark Shakespear as coauthors

2019 Reach Award for Excellence in Research Partnership, University of Victoria (shared with Shannon Daub, Corporate Mapping Project Co-Director)

2015       Awarded a Partnership grant of $2.5 million from SSHRC for ‘Mapping the Power of the Carbon-Extractive Corporate Resource Sector’

2015       Article of the Year award from the Canadian Sociological Association, for ‘Discipline, field, nexus: re-visioning sociology’

2012        Community Outreach Award, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Victoria

2011        Outstanding Contribution Award, Canadian Sociological Association

2008        Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Victoria

2006        The John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award (Canadian Sociological Association), for Corporate Power in a Globalizing World (Oxford University Press, 2004)

2003        Outstanding Service Award, Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association

1988        John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award (Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association), for Corporate Power and Canadian Capitalism (UBC Press, 1986)

1981        Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship (declined)

1977-80   Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowships

1975-77   Ontario Graduate Scholarships

1975        P.A. Sorokin Award in Sociology (Brock University)

1975        Brock University Vice Chancellor’s Medal