Doug McAdam, a professor at Stanford University and pioneer in analyzing social movements, will visit Elon April 18-19 and give a public lecture. McAdam will speak on “The Long-term Civic Impact of Youth Activism: The Curious Contrast between Freedom Summer and Teach for America" at 7:30 p.m., April 18, in Whitley Auditorium.
As a visiting scholar, McAdam will also visit Elon classes, meet with faculty members and be the speaker at the Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony on April 19.
McAdam will be at Elon through the sponsorship of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which selects top scholars in the liberal arts and sciences to travel to universities and colleges where Phi Beta Kappa chapters are located. Visiting scholars spend two days on each campus and give one major address open to the entire academic community. Since 1956, the Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars and enriching the intellectual life on campuses across the country.
McAdam’s public lecture will focus on two groups of young activists: the applicants to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project and those offered teaching positions by Teach for America during years 3-8 of the program. His aim in both studies is to assess the enduring effect of the experience on the subsequent civic/political lives of the two groups. His research includes a follow-up study of the long term “civic effects” of youth service; research on the dynamics of neighborhood collective action in Chicago from 1965 to 2005; and a study examining the influence of prior racial conflict on the location of arson attacks on black churches in the U.S. between 1995 and 2001. The lecture is free and open to the public.
McAdam is professor of sociology and former director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Prior to his appointment at Stanford in 1998, he taught for 15 years at the University of Arizona. He is the author or coauthor of 11 books and more than 70 articles in the area of political sociology, with a special emphasis on the study of social movements and revolutions. Among his works are Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970; Freedom Summer (C. Wright Mills Award); and The Dynamics of Contention (coauthor). His current research includes a follow-up study of the long term “civic effects” of youth service; research on the dynamics of neighborhood collective action in Chicago from 1965 to2005; and a study examining the influence of prior racial conflict on the location of arson attacks on black churches in the U.S. between 1995 and 2001.
Elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, McAdam was vice president of the American Sociological Association (2007-08) and twice a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, the NEH, and the Guggenheim and W.T. Grant Foundations.