David John Frank

David Frank is a Professor of Sociology (with a courtesy appointment in Education) and currently serving as Chair of the UC Irvine Sociology Department.  He is interested in the cultural infrastructure of world society, especially as it changes over time and varies across national contexts. In substance, he has studied the global rise and diffusion of environmental protection, the worldwide expansion and transformation of higher education, and the global re-conception and re-organization of criminal laws regulating sexual activity. He has degrees in sociology from Stanford University and the University of Chicago. Before coming to Irvine in 2002, he was on the faculty at Harvard University.

Ann Hironaka

Ann Hironaka is Associate Professor of Sociology at UCI.  Her research interests include international and civil war, ethnic conflict, environmental sociology, and institutional theory.  Her first book, Neverending Wars, was published by Harvard Press in 2005.  Amazon Link.

Julia Lerch

Julia C. Lerch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. in Education from Stanford in 2017, her M.Sc. in International Development from the University of Amsterdam in 2010, and her B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford in 2008.  Her research examines how evolving global cultural emphases transform social domains of life around the world, especially education.

Evan Schofer

Evan Schofer is Professor of Sociology at UCI.  His research interests include comparative political sociology, globalization, environmental sociology, sociology of education, and voluntary associations.

Current & Past Visiting Scholars

Nigel Kragten, University of Amsterdam

Tuomas Ylla-Antilla, University of Helsinki

Pertti Alasuutari, University of Tampere

Colin Beck, Department of Sociology, Pomona College

Laura Valkeasuo, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland