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Seth Abrutyn
Degrees:
Western Michigan University, BA, Sociology, 2000
San Diego State University, MA, Sociology, 2004
Awards:
Outstanding Teaching Assistant for the 2006-2007 Academic Year—Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside
Research Interests:
General Sociological Theory; Institutions; Sociology of Law and Sociology of Religion; Evolutionary Sociology; Historical Comparative; American Judaism
Publications:
Abrutyn, Seth. (Under Review at Sociological Theory) "Towards a General Theory of Institutional Autonomy."
Brint, Steven G. and Seth Abrutyn. (Forthcoming) "From Status Group Conflict to Institutionalized Party-Movement Electoral System."
Stets, Jan E., Michael J. Carter, Michael M. Harrod, Christine Cerven, and Seth Abrutyn. (Forthcoming). "The Moral Identity, Status, Moral Emotions, and the Normative Order." in Social Structure and Emotion, edited by J. Clay-Warner and D. T. Robinson. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.
Biography:
Seth's current project involves the application of his general theory of institutional autonomy to all of the major social institutions (kinship, polity, economy, religion, law, and education) within an evolutionary framework. To do so, he is constructing theoretical models that elucidate the general and historically specific dynamics of institutional differentiation and autonomy. Concomitant with this theoretical project, he is employing historical methods to model the growth (and/or lack thereof) of institutional autonomy within real historical cases such as Mesopotamia, Rome, the former Soviet Union and the modern state of Israel. He has also recently finished a research project with Professor Steven Brint that looked at the transformation and integration of the Christian Evangelical Right in the United States from a social movement to a political party; and more recently, he has joined the Cities and Empires project led by Prof. Christopher Chase-Dunn and is researching the apparent upward sweep during the latter half of the third millennium BCE in Mesopotamia (with the rise and expansion of the Akkadian empire) in order to evaluate the various theoretical explanations for this rapid growth.
Contact Information: seth.abrutyn@email.ucr.edu
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