I am Professor of Sociology at Duke University. (→ Read a short biosketch.)
Recent Work
Recent Writing
The Politics of Disorder
3 June 2020
The wave of protest and unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by the police shows little sign of abating just yet. Unrest nationwide is, if anything, increasing as protesters are met with repression by the police. Civil unrest of this scope is unusual. The conjunction of mass protest and widespread disorder should be worrying to those in authority.
When property damage and theft happens as a side-effect of real mass protest, authorities in a democracy cannot baton, tear gas, or shoot their way to legitimacy.
Get Apple's Mobility Data
23 May 2020 I’ve been maintaining covdata, an R package with a variety of COVID-related datasets in it. That means I’ve been pulling down updated files from various sources every couple of days. Most of these files are at static locations. While their internal structure may change occasionally, and maybe they’ve moved once or twice at most since I started looking at them, they’re generally at a stable location. Apple’s Mobility Data is an exception.The Kitchen Counter Observatory
21 May 2020 Every day begins in the same way. I get up. I make my coffee. I look at the data. Everything about this is absurd. To begin with, there’s the absurdity that everyone with a job like mine faces each day. Locked down at home with the kids, trying to get things done, unable to properly teach, write, or think. The household is like a little spacecraft, drifting in the void. Occasionally you venture outside to get supplies, or to check the shields.Covid Concept Generator
9 May 2020To save everyone some time, here’s a generator for the next five years of conceptual advances in social theory. Choose once at random from each column to secure your contribution.
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| Sequenced | Stratification |
| Algorithmic | Differences |
| Automated | Capital |
| Robust | Contagion |
| COVID | Masking |
| Epidemiologic | Others |
| Viral | Politics |
| Rhizomatic | Inequality |
| Infectious | Sexualities |
| Compartmentalized | Classification |
| Pandemic | Causality |
| Epizootic | Discrimination |
| Transmissible | Polarization |
| Leucocyte | Paradox |
| Intersectional | Bodies |
| Corona | Disparities |
| Liquid | Isomorphism |
| Genomic | Populism |
| Nucleotide | Interdependence |
| Masked | Colorism |