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Neil Louis Gross (born June 1, 1971) is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology and chair of the department of sociology at Colby College. He is also a visiting scholar of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge. He has written several books on sociological and political topics, and also blogs for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Gross edited the American Sociological Association's journal Sociological Theory from 2009 to 2015. He previously taught at the University of Southern California, Harvard University, and at the University of British Columbia.

Early life

Gross grew up near Berkeley, California, raised by his stay-at-home mother and his father, a legal editor. Both of his parents were avid readers.

Education

Gross earned a B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002.

Career

Before going to graduate school, Gross was a patrolman in the Berkeley Police Department in Berkeley, California. From 2004 to 2008, he was an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University, after which he joined the faculty of the University of British Columbia. He was the editor-in-chief of Sociological Theory for six years (2009-2015). In 2015, he left the University of British Columbia to become Charles A. Dana professor and chair of sociology.

On liberalism in academia

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A major focus of Gross' work has been the political leanings of university professors. He has said: "There's increasing evidence that yes, people who have college degrees do tend to be more liberal than people who don't have college degrees but when you actually unpack what's going on, it turns out that the reason that they're more liberal is because folks with more liberal views are more likely to go to college and finish four year degrees and evidence of a really strong effect of being in higher education on people's political views is beginning to look questionable... but certainly the idea that college indoctrinates students and gives them strong left leaning views, I think the evidence for that is pretty weak."

Gross and Solon Simmons compiled a book of essays focusing on political views of United States university faculty titled Professors and Their Politics in 2006. Sociologist Joseph Hermanowicz described the book as "a welcome addition to sociological literature examining higher education, which, in the case of its intersection with politics, has not received serious attention since Paul Lazarsfeld and Wagner Theilen's classic study of 1958 and Seymour Martin Lipset and Everett Carll Ladd's 1976 work."

Gross and Simmons characterized the state of scholarship on the topic: "In the 1990s, a few sociologists continued to produce high-quality work on the topic. But an unfortunate tendency became evident: increasingly, those social scientists who turned their attention to professors and politics and employed the tools of survey research had as their goal simply to highlight the liberalism of the professoriate in order to provide support for conservatives urging the political reform of American colleges and universities. The past twenty years or so have witnessed a concerted mobilization on the part of conservative activists, think tanks, foundations and professors aimed at challenging so-called liberal hegemony in higher education, and much recent research on faculty political views has been beholden to this program." Mark Brow is one of a number of scholars who have criticized Gross' explanations for the greater numbers of liberal than conservative professors, but nonetheless recognized Gross' impact: "Perhaps one of the most prolific apologists of the liberal professoriate has been professor of sociology Neil Gross."

Books

• "Pragmatism, Phenomenology, and Twentieth-Century American Sociology" - in Sociology in America: A History, Craig Calhoun, ed. 2008. ISBN 9780226090955
• Richard Rorty: The Making of an American Philosopher- 2008. ISBN 9780226309903
• Social Knowledge in the Making - co-edited with Charles Camic and Michèle Lamont. 2011.
• Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care? - 2013. ISBN 9780674059092
• Professors and Their Politics - co-edited with Solon Simmons. 2014. ISBN 9781421413341

References

1. ^ "Neil L. Gross". Colby College. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
2. Gross, Neil (March 5, 2013). "The Actual Politics of Professors". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
3. "Neil Gross – The Conversation - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
4. ^ Mooney, Chris (April 15, 2013). "Neil Gross - Why Are Professors (and Scientists) So Liberal?". Point of Inquiry. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
5. Hauchecorne, Mathieu; Ollion, Etienne (January 2009). "What is the new sociology of Ideas ? A Discussion with Charles Camic and Neil Gross". Transeo Review. Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
6. Boyle, Gerry (2015-10-16). "Patrolling the New Sociology". Colby Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
7. "Neil Gross Plans To Leave Harvard". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
8. ^ Gross, Neil; Simmons, Solon (29 May 2014). "The Social and Political Views of American College and University Professors". In Gross, N.; Simmons, S. (eds.). Professors and Their Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-1334-1. LCCN 2013035780.
9. Hermanowicz, Joseph C. (November 2015). "Professors and Their Politics. Edited by Neil Gross and Solon Simmons". American Journal of Sociology. 121 (3). The University of Chicago Press.
10. Brow, Mark V. (August 16, 2017). "Why There Are No Conservative Professors and Why Do Conservatives Care: Implications for Christian Scholarship". Journal of Research on Christian Education. 26 (2): 211–22. doi:10.1080/10656219.2017.1331776.

External links

• University of British Columbia - Neil Gross

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