Society and Culture in Theory and Practice
New Center for Social Theory is a crossroads for interdisciplinary research across social and cultural theory.
Faculty and graduate students working in the areas of social and cultural theory now have the support of the new Center for Social Theory, directed by Department of Sociology Professor Harry F. Dahms. The center’s mission is to enhance the quality of research and teaching across disciplines by providing opportunities to recognize, discuss, disseminate, and advance theoretical contributions and agendas—notably in social sciences and humanities fields, but also across the college and university.
A substantial number of faculty members in multiple departments have been engaging in theoretically oriented and informed research and scholarship, including sociology, English, philosophy, geography and sustainability, anthropology, political science, and in other UT colleges.
“We bring together faculty and graduate students working on similar challenges and projects, and organize conferences, symposia, panel discussions, and work-in-progress sessions,” said Dahms. “We will invite outside speakers and feature faculty currently at UT who are conducting and advancing theoretical work and projects and develop and promote new paradigms and concepts.”
The center showcases the university’s commitment to supporting constructive theoretically oriented and informed research and teaching for scholars, researchers, and students—including prospective students.
“We offer opportunities for active exchange of ideas by providing an environment for collaborative and interdisciplinary research, locally as well as nationally and globally, in multiple ways,” said Dahms.
An inaugural lecture by Mugambi Jouet, titled “Multidisciplinary Historiography of the West: An Exercise in Applied Social Theory,” marked the official launch of the center on April 30, 2025. The conference “Reality Lost? How to Recapture an Increasingly Elusive World,” in June, 2025, focused on determining “what is real” in this era of rapid social changes and technological advancements.
“Social theorists have been concerned with the issue of how to delineate, ascertain, and pin down ‘what is real’ from early in the 19th century,” said Dahms. “With the direction of social change in modern societies and global civilization continuing to be uncertain and subject to extensive speculation and anxiety—due to increasingly rapidly accelerating transformations—rigorous theoretically and historically informed reassessments of everything existing are required.”
The Center for Social Theory grew out of the Committee on Social Theory established in 2012 by Dahms and Professor Allen Dunn, head of the Department of Philosophy. The committee has provided graduate students with a path to an interdisciplinary graduate social theory certificate at UT. The center continues these activities, including providing a forum for students to fulfill the certificate’s capstone requirement.
“Students planning to complete the graduate social theory certificate will choose up to four seminars from their home department that qualify as theory courses,” said Dahms. “They will also choose at least two theory seminars offered by other departments—especially those offered by members of the Center for Social Theory.”
By Randall Brown