Ph.D. SUNY-Stony Brook, 1976
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
305 Garland Hall
615-322-7517
Email: george.becker@vanderbilt.edu

Courses Taught

Undergraduate:
     The Family
     Deviance and Social Control
     Criminology
     Sociological Perspectives

Graduate:
     Sociology of Science and Knowledge
     Classical Sociological Theory and Major Theorists
     Sociology of the Intellectual
     Teaching Workshop

Research Interests

Historical Sociology
Sociology of Religion
Sociology of the Intellectual
Sociology of Science and Knowledge

Current Research Projects

The Protestant Clergy’s Contribution to German Science:
       Theoretical Implications;
Catholic and Protestant Mobility Patterns in 19^th Century Germany
The Current Debate Regarding the Association of Creativity and
       Psychopathology: Viewed from a Sociological Perspective

Recent Publications

George Becker. Forthcoming. "The Association of Creativity and Psychopathology: Its Cultural-Historical Origins," Creativity Research Journal.

George Becker. 1997. "Replication and Reanalysis of Offenbacher’s School Enrollment Study: Implications for the Weber and Merton Thesis," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 36 (4): 483-495.

George Becker (with Kevin Christiano et al.). 1995. Teaching Sociology Graduate Students to Teach Sociology. Published Report of the Ad Hoc Graduate Education Committee of the American Sociological Association.

George Becker. 1993. "Specialized Knowledge Claims and Professionalization: The Case of Psychiatry and Medicine in France," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 29 (3): 201-12, 1993.

George Becker. 1992. "The Merton Thesis: Oetinger and German Pietism, A Significant Negative Case," Sociological Forum. 7 (4): 641-660.

Honors, Awards, Grants Received

University Chair of Teaching Excellence Award, 1999-2002

Ernest A. Jones Faculty Advisor Award, 1996

Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, 1994