Larry Isaac | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BS, 1971, MS, 1974, University of Akron PhD, 1979, Indiana University |
| Thesis | The Political Economy of Insurgency, State Expenditures, and Income Distribution: A Comparative Panel Analysis, 1948-1970 (1979) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Florida State University,Vanderbilt University |
| Notable students | Jonathan Coley,Anna Jacobs,Quan Mai |
Larry W. Isaac is an American sociologist,the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Political Economy at Vanderbilt University.
Isaac was born in Cleveland,Ohio,graduated from Avon High School west of Cleveland,and received a B.S. in Industrial Management and M.A. in sociology from the University of Akron. He did his doctoral work and received the Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University (Bloomington). [1]
Isaac began his professorial career at Florida State University in 1978 where he rose through the academic ranks to become the Mildred and Claude Pepper Distinguished Professor. He joined the Sociology Department at Vanderbilt University in 2004,where he is now the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor (endowed chair) of Sociology &Political Economy. [1] He served as the Sociology Department Chair at Vanderbilt from 2015 to 2021.
From 2010 to 2015,Isaac served as senior editor of the American Sociological Review,the flagship scientific journal of the American Sociological Association. [1] He also previously served as president of the Southern Sociological Society from 2007 to 2008 and received the Distinguished Lectureship Award from the Southern Sociological Society in 2011. [2] [3]
Isaac has published extensively in the fields of political sociology,political economy,social movements,labor studies,and historical processes of social change. He is known for his published work in three major areas:(i) political economy of labor movements and class formation processes;(ii) civil rights and black liberation movement dynamics;and (iii) methodological approaches to incorporating qualitative events and turning points into quantitative models of social-historical change. [1]
Isaac's publications have received three awards from the American Sociological Association (in Comparative-Historical Sociology,Culture,and Labor Movements). [4] [5] In recognition of his accomplishments in research,he was elected into the national honorary research society,Sociological Research Association,in 2014. [6]