Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Sociology,

#1451

Casimir C. Akoh

#131538

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

#1452

Terence Thornberry

#114179

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Terence Patrick Thornberry is an American criminologist who has been a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland since 2012. Before he joined the faculty of the University of Maryland in 2009, he was a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado and the director of their Problem Behavior Program from 2004 to 2009. Before that, he was a professor at the University at Albany, SUNY from 1984 to 2001, and a Distinguished Professor there from 2001 to 2004. He served as the dean of the University at Albany, SUNY Sc...

#1453

Thomas A. Arcury

#131607

Overall Influence

#1454

Ramón Flecha

#62527

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Ramón Flecha is a Spanish sociologist who is a professor of sociology at the University of Barcelona, Doctor Honoris Causa from West University of Timişoara, and a researcher in social sciences in Europe. Alain Touraine highlighted the contribution of Flecha in recognizing the knowledge of cultural analysis of people without studies:

#1455

Marco Martiniello

#131814

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Marco Martiniello is an Italian-Belgian sociologist and political scientist. He teaches sociology of migration and ethnic relations at the University of Liège. He is currently research director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research , and the director of the Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies ., as well as Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Liège.

#1456

Arthur B. Shostak

Arthur B. Shostak

#101588

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (87 years)

Arthur B. Shostak , is an American sociologist and futurist, and former professor of sociology at Drexel University. His research areas include futuristics, the history and future of the American work force, organized labor, industrial sociology, the management and social implications of modern technology, and Holocaust/Shoah scholarship.

#1457

Jean-Philippe Warren

#98291

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Jean-Philippe Warren is a Canadian sociologist from Quebec. Biography Warren is a professor of sociology at Concordia University in Montreal, and he holds degrees from Université Laval, the University of Montreal and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Paris. The history of social sciences, social movements, indigenous peoples, and the Catholic Church are all of particular interest to him. He has written studies on Quebec sociologist Fernand Dumont, painter Paul-Émile Borduas, and Honoré Beaugrand.

#1458

Masaomi Koizumi

#132046

Overall Influence

#1459

Arthur Asa Berger

Arthur Asa Berger

#25858

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Arthur Asa Berger is an American academic and author known for his contributions to the field of media studies. He is currently a Professor Emeritus in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University.

#1460

Hubert M. Blalock Jr.

#84199

Overall Influence

1926 - 1991 (65 years)

Hubert Morse Blalock Jr. was an American sociologist who was internationally known for his major work on statistical research methods. He was a professor of sociology at the University of Washington, president of the American Sociological Association and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. According to the National Academies Press, Hubert Blalock "played a major role in shaping the field of sociology during the latter half of the twentieth century". He married Ann Bonar and had three children, Susan, Kathleen, and James.

#1461

Pepper Schwartz

Pepper Schwartz

#67214

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Pepper Schwartz is an American sexologist and sociologist teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. She is the author or co-author of numerous books, magazines, and website columns, and is a television personality on the subject of sexuality.

#1462

Mustafa F. Özbilgin

#76917

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Mustafa F. Özbilgin is a Turkish-born British social scientist. He is Professor of Human Resource Management at Brunel Business School, Brunel University and was the editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Management between 2010 and 2013. He is also co-chair of Management and Diversity at University Paris-Dauphine in France. Between 2006 and 2010, he served as the editor-in-chief of Equal Opportunities International.

#1463

Geoffrey C. Bowker

#58207

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Geoffrey C. Bowker is Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. He moved to UCI at the start of 2012, having held the positions of Professor and Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information. Prior to that, Bowker was Executive Director and Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor at the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University. Previously, Bowker was chair of the Department of Communication at the University of California - San Diego and has held appointments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champa...

#1464

Vincenzo Ruggiero

#61818

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Vincenzo Ruggiero is Professor of Sociology at Middlesex University, London. He is also director of the Centre for Social and Criminological Research at Middlesex University. Research He has conducted research on behalf of the ESRC , the British Home Office, the European Commission and the United Nations.

#1465

Ken Plummer

#129524

Overall Influence

1946 - 2022 (76 years)

Ken Plummer may refer to:Ken Plummer , professor of sociology at the University of EssexKen Plummer , English rugby union player

#1466

Alison Adam

#32795

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Alison Adam is a British researcher in the field of Science and Technology Studies and is known for her work on gender in information systems and the history of forensic science. She is Professor Emerita of science, technology and society at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.

#1467

Alicia Gutiérrez

#105293

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Alicia Beatriz Gutiérrez is an Argentine sociologist and author. She is a professor and chair of the department of sociology in the at the National University of Córdoba. Career She is a professor and chair of the department of sociology in the at the National University of Córdoba. Gutiérrez is an adjunct professor of anthropology in the at the University of Buenos Aires. She is an investigator with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council. Gutiérrez completed a doctorate in sociology at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. She was a close colleague of Pierre ...

#1468

Alphons G. J. Voragen

#132445

Overall Influence

#1469

Stevi Jackson

#99183

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Stevi Jackson , is an academic and writer working in the field of gender and sexuality. She has been Professor of Women's studies at the University of York, England since 1998, and is Director of the University's Centre for Women's Studies.

#1470

Islah Jad

#77894

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Islah Jad is a tenured assistant professor of Gender and Development at Birzeit University. She is also the co-founder and current Director of the Institute of Women’s Studies at Birzeit and a Core Group Member of the Arab Families Working Group. A prominent figure in the Palestinian women’s movement, Jad also helped to establish the Women’s Affair Centre in Gaza and Nablus, Les Amies du Francis, the Child Corner project in el-Bireh, and the WATC . Jad carried out Gender Consultancy for the United Nations Development Programme and was a co-author of the United Nation’s Arab Human Development Report of 2005.

#1471

Bulent Diken

#94014

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Bulent Diken is a Danish-Turkish philosopher and sociologist who teaches at Lancaster University. He has studied urban planning at the Aarhus School of Architecture. He is known for his research on social theory, post-structuralism, nihilism, political philosophy, urban sociology, and immigration. During 1998-1999 he was an assistant professor at Roskilde University, Department of Geography.

#1472

Hans‐peter Blossfeld

#132733

Overall Influence

#1473

Raymond Winbush

Raymond Winbush

#30232

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Raymond Arnold Winbush a.k.a. Tikari Bioko is an American scholar and activist known for his systems-thinking approaches to understanding the impact of racism/white supremacy on the global African community. He is currently Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

#1474

Stefan Breuer

#33253

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Stefan Breuer is a German sociologist who specializes in the writings of Max Weber and the German political right between 1871 and 1945. Life and career Born in 1948, Breuer studied political science, history and philosophy at the universities of Mainz, Munich and Berlin. Between 1974 and 1984, he was an assistant researcher in political science at Leibniz University Hannover. Since 1984, he has been professor of sociology at the University of Hamburg, and since 2014 a professor emeritus.

#1475

Elaine Howard Ecklund

Elaine Howard Ecklund

#46211

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Elaine Howard Ecklund is a published author and professor of sociology at Rice University. She is also the director of the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice, a Rice Scholar at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and the president of the Religious Research Association. Her research focuses on institutional change in the areas of religion, immigration, science, medicine, and gender.

#1476

Melinda Mills

#64229

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Melinda Mills, is a Canadian and Dutch demographer and sociologist. She is currently the Nuffield Professor of Sociology at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Mills’ research spans a range of interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of demography, sociology, molecular genetics and statistics. Her substantive research specializes in fertility and human reproductive behaviour, assortative mating, labour market, life course and inequality.

#1477

Felton James Earls

#133147

Overall Influence

#1478

Charles V. Willie

#47794

Overall Influence

1927 - 2022 (95 years)

Charles Vert Willie was an American sociologist who was the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education, Emeritus at Harvard University. His areas of research included desegregation, higher education, public health, race relations, urban community problems, and family life. Willie considered himself an applied sociologist, concerned with solving social problems.

#1479

Pedro Noguera

#75978

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Pedro Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education. He is recognized as a leading scholar of urban public education, equity, and school reform.

#1480

John E. Knodel

#133531

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

#1481

Sirry Alang

#34686

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Sirry Alang is a Cameroonian-American Health Services Researcher. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Health, Medicine and Society at Lehigh University. Alang is also a Medical Sociologist. Her research examines the structural causes of health inequity and the social determinants of health.

#1482

Xiangming Chen

#35196

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Xiangming Chen served as the founding dean and director of urban and global studies and director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, from 2007 to 2019. He is currently the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity College. Prior to this, Chen served as assistant to full professor of sociology and adjunct professor of political science and urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

#1483

Irena Klepfisz

#75553

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Irena Klepfisz is a Jewish lesbian author, academic and activist. Early life Klepfisz was born in the Warsaw Ghetto on April 17, 1941, the daughter of Michał Klepfisz, a member of the Jewish Labour Bund , and his wife, Rose Klepfisz . In late April 1943, when she had just turned two years old, her father was killed on the second day of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising .

#1484

Richard Miskolci

#134176

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Richard Miskolci is a Brazilian sociologist. He is Full Professor of Sociology at UNIFESP , Brazil, and also a researcher of CNPq . Miskolci is the leader of the Research Center Quereres. He initiated his career dealing with Critical Theory, but the contact with the works of Michel Foucault and Cultural Studies attracted his attention to the field of differences. Miskolci has researched in Germany and was a Student-at-large in the humanities at the University of Chicago before receiving his PhD in Sociology from University of São Paulo . He got tenured as a professor of sociology at UFSCar ...

#1485

Thierry Bardini

#10485

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Thierry Bardini is a French sociologist, author of the book Bootstrapping, about Douglas Engelbart. He is a full professor in the Department of Communication at the Université de Montréal, Canada. He is known for his work on innovation and sociology of technology.

#1486

George Yancey

#89410

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

George Alan Yancey is an American professor of sociology at the Baylor University, where he has taught since 2019. He is known for his research on anti-Christian attitudes in the contemporary United States, and the ways in which it can influence the decisions made by academic sociologists. He has been called "the only researcher studying Christianophobia at a secular university".

#1487

Bernardo Sorj

#49708

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Bernardo Sorj is a Brazilian social scientist, retired professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is Director of The Edelstein Center for Social Research and of the Plataforma Democrática Project. He has published 30 books and more than 100 articles, on Latin American political development, international relations, the social impact of new technologies, social theory and Judaism.

#1488

Susanne Karstedt

#62370

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Susanne Karstedt is a German criminologist. She is a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. Biography A native of Germany, Kartstedt trained in sociology at the University of Hamburg. Prior to joining Griffith University, she held positions at the University of Leeds, Keele University, Bielefield University, and the University of Hamburg.

#1489

Gregor McLennan

#68000

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Gregor McLennan is a British sociologist and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He holds the Established Chair of Sociology at the University of Bristol. From 1991 to 1997 he was Head of the Department of Sociology at Massey University.

#1490

Johannes Hjellbrekke

#119907

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Johannes Hjellbrekke is a Norwegian sociologist. He is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen and was editor-in-chief of Sosiologisk tidsskrift from 2003 to 2005. He was appointed as Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen in 2005, and became full Professor in 2010. He has been a visiting scholar/professor at the University of York, EHESS/Paris, UC Berkeley and New York University. He is noted for his research on social class, elites, power, and social mobility.

#1491

Filipe Carreira da Silva

#51353

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Filipe Carreira da Silva is a Zimbabwean-born Portuguese social theorist at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon and at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He specializes in American philosophical pragmatism, critical theory and intellectual history of the twentieth century. He is the author or co-author of ten books, and the editor or co-editor of seven others, and he has also published more than thirty articles. He has a monthly column in the Portuguese daily newspaper Público.

#1492

Martin S. Weinberg

#84974

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Martin S. Weinberg is an American sociologist whose work frequently involves human sexuality. His major areas of interest include sociology of the body, sociology of deviance and control, and interpretive sociology.

#1493

Ulrich Dolata

#105213

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Ulrich Dolata is a German sociologist. Education & career Ulrich Dolata earned a graduate degree in economics at the University of Bremen in 1985, where he continued to complete a doctorate in economics and social sciences in 1992 as well as a post-doctoral degree with a thesis on the sociology of technology in 2003. Starting with the mid of the 1980s, he worked at the University of Bremen and the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, followed by artec at the University of Bremen, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. In the academic year 2000–2001, he taug...

#1494

Peter Kwong

#47358

Overall Influence

1941 - 2017 (76 years)

Peter Kwong was a professor of Asian American studies and urban affairs and planning at Hunter College in New York City, as well as a professor of sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

#1495

Matthew J. Salganik

Matthew J. Salganik

#102323

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Matthew Jeffrey Salganik is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at Princeton University with a special interest on social networks and computational social science. Career Salganik received his bachelor's degree in mathematics at Emory University in 1998. He proceeded to get his master's degree in sociology at Cornell University in 2003, where he also lived in the Telluride House. He finished his Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University in 2007. Salganik was hired by Princeton in 2007 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Alongside this, he also currently serves as the Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy.

#1496

Simone Browne

#12603

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Simone Arlene Browne is an author and educator. She is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Early life and education Browne was born in 1973, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario, where she received a BA , MA, and PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at the University of Toronto. Her 2001 Masters thesis was titled Surveilling the Jamaican body, leisure imperialism, immigration and the Canadian imagination. Her doctoral dissertation in 2007 was titled ...

#1497

Etannibi Alemika

#17069

Overall Influence

Etannibi Alemika is a professor of Criminology and the Sociology of Law at the University of Jos. In August 2015, he was one of seven individuals appointed to a newly formed anti-corruption board organized by President Muhammadu Buhari. His most widely cited article is titled Policing and Perceptions of Police in Nigeria, which was published in 1988.

#1498

Bruce Western

#52854

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Bruce Prichart Western is an Australian-born American sociologist and a professor of sociology at Columbia University. In 2023, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Early life and education Western was born in Australia, to a white native Australian father who taught at the University of Queensland, and a Thai international student mother. His father was John Western. He became interested in inequality in Australia growing up in Queensland, where he, his brother, and their mother stood out as racial minorities. He received his B.A. in government with honors from the University of Queensland in 1987.

#1499

Martin A. Trow

#135410

Overall Influence

#1500

Peter Taylor-Gooby

#100202

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Peter Frederick Taylor-Gooby has been Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent since 1990. Early life and education Peter Frederick Taylor-Gooby was born on 5 March 1947 to John and Irene Taylor-Gooby. After studying at Watford Grammar School, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Bristol, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and English literature in 1969. Three years later, he completed a Diploma in Social Administration at the University of York, where he completed a Master of Philosophy degree in the same subject in 1974. York awarded ...

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