ALEXANDER TRISTAN RILEY
Department of Sociology/Anthropology
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837
e-mail: atriley@bucknell.edu web page: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/atriley/
EDUCATION
Ph.D.University of California, San Diego, June 2000
Thesis title : “In Pursuit of the Sacred: The Durkheimian Sociologists of Religion and the Modern Intellectual"
Advisor : Dr. Harvey Goldman
Areas of specialization : Cultural Sociology, Sociological Theory, Popular Culture, Leisure and Consumption, Intellectuals, Religion, Knowledge, Art and Music, The Body
M.A. University of California, San Diego, 1995 (Sociology)
B.A. Ohio Wesleyan University (attended January 1986-June 1988), 1988, (Political Science, Minor in Sociology, Magna Cum Laude) Northwestern University (attended September 1984-December 1985)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“The Intellectual and Political Project of Robert Hertz: The Making of a Peculiar Durkheimian Intellectual, as seen through Selected Correspondence with Pierre Roussel," Durkheimian Studies, vol. 5, n.s., 1999:29-59
"Whence Durkheim's Nietzschean Grandchildren?: A Closer Look at Robert Hertz's Place in the Durkheimian Genealogy," Archives européenes de sociologie/European Journal of Sociology, 40:2, 1999:110-137
“Ethnologie d'un anthropologue. À propos de la correspondance de Robert Hertz," Gradhiva, 30/31, 2001/2002:122-134
Un ethnologue dans les tranchées. Lettres de Robert Hertz à sa femme Alice (août 1914-avril 1915) , Alexander Riley and Philippe Besnard (eds.),Paris: Éditions CNRS, 2002
"Durkheim contra Bergson? The Hidden Roots of Postmodern Theory and the Postmodern 'Return' of the Sacred, "Sociological Perspectives, 45:3, 2002:243-265
"The Sacred Calling of Intellectual Labor in Mystic and Ascetic Durkheimianism," Archives européenes de sociologie/European Journal of Sociology, 42:2, 2002:354-385
“Crisis, Habitus, and Intellectual Trajectory,” Revue européene des sciences sociales, XLII , no. 129, 2004 :307-314
"'Renegade Durkheimianism' and the Transgressive/Left Sacred," in Jeffrey Alexander and Philip Smith, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005:274-301
“The Theory of Play/Games and Sacrality in Popular Culture: The Relevance of Roger Caillois for Contemporary Neo-Durkheimian Cultural Theory,” Durkheimian Studies, vol. 11, n.s., 2005:103-114
"The Rebirth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Hip Hop: Some Suggestions for a Cultural Sociology of Gangsta Rap Music,” Journal of Youth Studies 8:3, September 2005:297-311
"In the Trenches of the War Between Sociology and Literature: Exploring the Scandalous Sociology of Modernity in the Novels of Michel Houellebecq," International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, 43:1, April 2006:105-124
“Notes on the Role of Images and the Social Imaginary in the Construction of Narratives Concerning the Crash of United Airlines Flight 93,” Visual Studies, 23:1, April 2008:4-19
Cultural Theory: An Introduction, second edition, with Philip Smith, 2008, Blackwell
Saints, Heroes, Myths, and Rites: Classical Durkheimian Studies of Religion and Society, edited with Sarah Daynes and Cyril Isnart, August 2009, Paradigm
WORK IN PROGRESS
Godless Intellectuals?: The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred Reinvented, forthcoming, Berghahn Books
Tragic Play: Sacredness and Transgression in Contemporary Popular Culture, contracted with Lexington Books, manuscript due January 2010