The Most Influential People Across History
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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List of the most influential people in Sociology,
#2051
Ulrike Tikvah Kissmann
#92753
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Ulrike Tikvah Kissmann is a German sociologist. Life Ulrike T. Kissmann completed her Abitur and Baccalauréat in 1986 and joined the classe préparatoire at the Lycée La Bruyère in Versailles to study Philosophy and Classical Philology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Sèvres-Ulm. From 1987 to 1993, she completed a double degree program in Physics and Philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin . She was awarded the Erwin-Stephan-Preis by the TU Berlin for her degree. From 1993 to 1994, she successfully completed a postgraduate degree in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#2052
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
#174401
Overall Influence
#2053
Gunhild Hagestad
#143609
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Gunhild Oline Hagestad is a retired Norwegian sociologist and a former assistant professor at Agder University College. Her research interests have focused on the sociology of aging. Personal life Hagestad was born in Birkenes on 6 November 1942, a daughter of Tønnes Hagestad and Bertha Stapnes. She was married to György Bisztray from 1966 to 1975.
Go to Profile#2054
Köksal Alver
#168439
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Koksal Alver is a Turkish author who was born in Narman, a town and district of Erzurum, Turkey in 1970. His works primarily concern cultural dynamics, sociology of space and rural sociology. He is also an recognized expert in sociology of literature as a subfield of the sociology of culture. His literary works are inspired by traditional Ottoman poetry, which he composes in his own narrative styles.
Go to Profile#2055
Nayereh Tohidi
#72466
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Nayereh Esfahlani Tohidi is an Iranian-born American professor, researcher, and academic administrator. Tohidi is a professor emerita and former chair of gender and women’s studies, and the founding director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at California State University, Northridge.
Go to Profile#2056
Pierre Malotaux
#34075
Overall Influence
1923 - 2016 (93 years)
Pierre Charles-André Malotaux was a Dutch organizational theorist, business consultant, and Professor of Business Administration at the Delft University of Technology. His is known with Jan in 't Veld for developing a specific systems approach to organizational problems, called the Delft Systems Approach.
Go to Profile#2057
Teemu Malmi
#59273
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Teemu Malmi is a Finnish organizational theorist, a professor at the Aalto University, Department of Accounting and Finance, and Chairman of the Board of the Aalto University Executive Education. He is known for his research on the use of the balanced scorecard in Finnish companies and his work on management control systems.
Go to Profile#2058
Alexander Hicks
#146827
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Alexander M. Hicks is a sociologist who principally studies the causes and consequences of social democracy, corporatism, the welfare state and the sociology of culture, literature and film. He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Emory University, where he has been since 1986 following an instructorship and assistant professorship at Northwestern Political Science Department and a postdoctoral fellowship at the NORC, University of Chicago.[1] Graduate students have included Desmond King , Joya Misra , 2023-2024 President of the American Sociological Association, Dan Slater , Christina Steidl, Associate Dean, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Duane Swank .
Go to Profile#2059
Kim Blankenship
#118690
Overall Influence
Kim M. Blankenship is an American sociologist and HIV/AIDS researcher. She is a professor at the American University College of Arts and Sciences and the director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Core of the District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research.
Go to Profile#2060
Andrew Papachristos
#117217
Overall Influence
Andrew Vasilios Papachristos is an American sociologist, professor of sociology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He is also the director of the Northwestern Neighborhoods & Networks Initiative that engages communities, civic partners, and policy makers to address core problems facing the residents of Chicago and surrounding communities. He previously served as professor of sociology at Yale University, where he directed the Policy Lab at Yale as well as the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course.
Go to Profile#2061
Margo Okazawa-Rey
#92072
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Margo Okazawa-Rey , is an American professor emerita, educator, writer, and social justice activist, who is most known as a founding member of the Combahee River Collective, and for her transnational feminist advocacy.
Go to Profile#2062
Anthony Abela
#127409
Overall Influence
1954 - 2006 (52 years)
Anthony Abela was a major Maltese sociologist. He mostly specialised in values. Life Abela was born at Floriana, Malta, in 1954. He began his studies at the University of Malta, from which he acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy , and pursued further studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, from which he acquired a bachelor's degree in Theology . He also studied at the Centre Sèvres in Paris, France, from which he acquired a master's degree in Theology ; at the Loyola University of Chicago, U.S. ; and at the University of Oxford, England, from which he acquired a doctorate in ...
Go to Profile#2063
Ed Sanders
#5068
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Edward Sanders is an American poet, singer, activist, author, publisher and longtime member of the rock band the Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and hippie generations. Sanders is considered to have been active and "present at the counterculture's creation."
Go to Profile#2064
Lorne L. Dawson
#108039
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Lorne L. Dawson is a Canadian scholar of the sociology of religion who has written about new religious movements, the brainwashing controversy, and religion and the Internet. His work is now focused on religious terrorism and the process of radicalization, especially with regard to domestic terrorists.
Go to Profile#2065
Gorm Wagner
#122814
Overall Influence
1930 - 2018 (88 years)
Gorm Wagner was a Danish sexologist. Born on 24 August 1930, Wagner earned his medical degree at the University of Copenhagen in 1958, after which he completed a doctorate at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and took an internship at the Trinity Lutheran Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, followed by a research position at Rockefeller University. Upon Wagner's return to Denmark, he sought further training in gynecology and obstetrics, and joined the Department of Physiology at the University of Copenhagen as a research assistant in 1964, where he was later named an associate professor.
Go to Profile#2066
Erna Solberg
#29087
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Erna Solberg is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the 35th prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been Leader of the Conservative Party since May 2004.
Go to Profile#2067
William F. Schulz
#14053
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
William F. Schulz is a Unitarian Universalist minister who is most known for his role as the executive director of Amnesty International USA, the U.S. division of Amnesty International, from March 1994 to 2006. He is a prominent spokesperson, activist, and author focusing primarily on the issue of Human Rights and United States' Government role in promoting or disregarding them. In addition to his many public appearances, he has been affiliated with numerous non-profit organizations and universities.
Go to Profile#2068
Juana María Rodríguez
#127693
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Juana María Rodríguez is a Cuban-American professor of Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly writing in queer theory, critical race theory, and performance studies highlights the intersection of race, gender, sexuality and embodiment in constructing subjectivity.
Go to Profile#2069
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey
#113599
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey is a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Education Tomaskovic-Devey received his B.A. from Fordham University in 1979 and his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1984, both in sociology.
Go to Profile#2070
Marcel Mauss
#175163
Overall Influence
#2071
Joshua Greenberg
#68369
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Joshua "Josh" M. Greenberg is an American academic working in sociology of scientific knowledge. Greenberg is Program Director for Digital Information Technology at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Previously he was the Director of Digital Strategy and Scholarship at the New York Public Library . His interests encompass the intersection of scholarship, education and information technology. His initiatives at NYPL engaged the nascent disciplines of digital asset management.
Go to Profile#2072
Fatou Sow
#100632
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Fatou Sow is a Senegalese feminist sociologist specialising in sociology of gender. Life and career After Senegal gained independence in 1960, Sow was one of the first women to attend a university in the country. After she defended a thesis about the Senegalese elite, she kept researching in sociology.
Go to Profile#2073
Éric Brian
#112621
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Éric Brian is a historian of science and a sociologist. He studies the uncertainty and regularity of social phenomena, and in particular, how scientists have caught and conceived them as objects of mathematics or social and economic sciences.
Go to Profile#2074
Reginald Bibby
#62364
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Reginald Wayne Bibby is a Canadian sociologist. He has held the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge since 2001. Born on 3 April 1943 in Edmonton, Alberta, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta, a BD from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Calgary, and a PhD from Washington State University.
Go to Profile#2075
Milton Himmelfarb
#71394
Overall Influence
1918 - 2006 (88 years)
Milton Himmelfarb was an American sociographer of the American Jewish community. Himmelfarb worked for four decades at the American Jewish Committee where he was director of information and research services. He edited various versions of the American Jewish Yearbook. He also was a contributing editor of Commentary, the monthly journal of opinion.
Go to Profile#2076
Richard Jenkins
#140897
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Richard Jenkins is a sociologist and retired academic. From 1995 to 2014, he was Chair in Sociology at the University of Sheffield. Life Richard Jenkins was born in 1952 in Liverpool and grew up in Northern Ireland. He studied social anthropology at Queen's University Belfast, and the University of Cambridge, where he completed his doctoral studies; his PhD was awarded in 1981 for his thesis "Young people, education and work in a Belfast housing estate". After working at the Social Science Research Council Unit on Ethnic Relations at Aston University, Jenkins took up a post at University College Swansea in 1983.
Go to Profile#2077
Jacquelyn Zita
#113030
Overall Influence
Jacquelyn Zita is an American born philosopher, active in environmental justice issues and how they impact gender and racial justice considerations. A former professor at the University of Minnesota, Zita is known for her involvement in the Women's Environmental Institute, which she helped found in 2003, and her role as WEI's farm manager and director of education and operations.
Go to Profile#2078
Wilson A. Head
#72520
Overall Influence
1914 - 1993 (79 years)
Wilson A. Head was an American/Canadian sociologist and community planner known for his work in race relations, human rights and peace in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world. Early life Wilson Adonijah Head was born on September 30, 1914, in Milner, Georgia. He "was the son of a Georgia sharecropper, Evander Head , and of Evelyn Whittle , the eldest of five children"; siblings Frank, Marvin, Glenn, and Minnie Head. He was of African American, Northern European, and Cherokee descent. He grew up in deep poverty in the small black community of Milner, near Atlanta. His father ...
Go to Profile#2079
Sonalde Desai
#162715
Overall Influence
Sonalde Desai is a sociologist and demographer. She is a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and a professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, where she serves as the first direction of the National Data Innovation Centre. She is the principal investigator for the India Human Development Survey, a nationwide panel data survey or more than 40,000 households in more than 2,000 villages and urban neighborhoods. In 2022, she served as president of the Population Association of America. In 2023 she was named a fellow of the...
Go to Profile#2080
Maria N. Antonopoulou
#134376
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Maria N. Antonopoulou is an emeritus professor at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences Athens, Department of Sociology. She holds a PhD in sociology, Birmingham University, UK. She has published four books and several articles.
Go to Profile#2081
Tracey McIntosh
#91812
Overall Influence
Tracey Kathleen Dorothy McIntosh is a New Zealand sociology and criminology academic. She is of Māori descent and is currently a Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland.
Go to Profile#2082
John Offer
#156024
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
John William Offer is a British sociologist who serves as Professor of Social Theory and Policy at Ulster University. His most recent book is Social Policy and Welfare Pluralism: Selected Writings of Robert Pinker, jointly edited by John Offer and Robert Pinker, published by Policy Press in 2017. Beginning in October, 2021 he will hold a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship for the project 'Spencer's Sociology: A Study in Retrieval and Revival'.
Go to Profile#2083
Pınar Selek
#98803
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Pınar Selek is a Turkish sociologist, feminist, and author. She is known for her work on the rights of vulnerable communities in Turkey, including women, the poor, street children, sexual minorities, and Kurdish communities. She is the author of several books published in Turkish, German, and French, and is one of the founding editors of Amargi, a Turkish feminist journal. She currently resides in France where she obtained academic exile from the universities in Strasbourg then Nice under the French PAUSE program, and later a permanent assistant professor position in sociology at Université Côte d'Azur.
Go to Profile#2084
Kerry Carrington
#69564
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Kerry Lyn Carrington is an Australian criminologist, and an adjunct professor at the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast . She formerly served as head of the QUT School of Justice for 11 years from 2009 to 2021. She was editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. She is known for her work on gender and violence, feminist criminology, southern criminology, youth justice and girls' violence, and global justice and human rights.
Go to Profile#2085
Erica Kuligowski
#112809
Overall Influence
Erica Kuligowski is a social research scientist who studies human behavior during emergencies and the performance of evacuation models in disasters. She currently works at the Engineering Lab of the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducting research on fire disasters and leading the NIST Hurricane Maria Project.
Go to Profile#2086
Yuval Dror
#107084
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Yuval Dror is an Israeli specialist in sociology of technology. He is the former Dean of School of Media Studies at the College of Management Academic Studies and now serves as the Editor in Chief of "Making History" podcast network. He is a renowned international speaker and over the years he has given lectures in a large number of international conferences on subjects such as innovation, digital transformation, the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, social media, trust and big tech. He is regarded as a prominent critic of the power of large technology companies.
Go to Profile#2087
John A. Clausen
#121994
Overall Influence
1915 - 1996 (81 years)
John Adam Clausen was an American sociologist and academic. After holding various positions during the 1940s, Clausen joined the National Institute of Mental Health in 1948 as a research consultant. With the institute, he led an environmental social science research laboratory he created from 1951 to 1960. As a part of the NIMH, he also conducted research on schizophrenia and mental health. In 1960, Cluasen became a sociology professor for the University of California, Berkeley and continued to teach until his retirement in 1982.
Go to Profile#2088
Johnston Birchall
#39809
Overall Influence
1951 - 2021 (70 years)
Johnston Birchall was a leading British academic in the field of co-operative studies and at the time of his death Professor Emeritus at the Social Science Faculty of the University of Stirling. Biography Birchall studied theology at the University of Oxford, before working as a community worker and a housing association manager for five years. He then completed a masters degree in sociology at the University of York, followed by a PhD in 1985 on housing co-operatives, also at York. His doctoral thesis formed the basis for his 1988 book, Building Communities: The Co-operative Way.
Go to Profile#2089
Sheila Riddell
#120220
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Sheila Riddell , is an academic at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity . She has also been Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research, University of Glasgow. Her research interests include equality and social inclusion in education and adult education, with particular reference to gender, social class and disability
Go to Profile#2090
David Thorns
#161233
Overall Influence
1943 - 2020 (77 years)
David Christopher Thorns was a New Zealand sociologist, particularly known for his work on urban and suburban sociology. Early life and family Born in County Durham, England, in 1943, Thorns graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Sheffield and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Exeter.
Go to Profile#2091
Maxime Rodinson
#6067
Overall Influence
1915 - 2004 (89 years)
Maxime Rodinson was a French historian and sociologist. Ideologically a Marxist, Rodinson was a prominent authority oriental studies. He was the son of a Russian-Polish clothing trader and his wife, who both were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After studying oriental languages, he became a professor of Ge'ez at the École pratique des hautes études. He was the author of a body of work, including the book Muhammad, a biography of the prophet of Islam.
Go to Profile#2092
Cat Pausé
#84845
Overall Influence
1979 - 2022 (43 years)
Caitlin Clare "Cat" Pausé was an American academic specialising in fat studies and a fat activist. From 2008 until her death in 2022 she was a senior lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand. Education Pausé completed a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Southwest Texas State University in 1999. She attained her Master of Arts at Texas Tech University in 2002, and completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Human Development at Texas Tech University in 2007. Pausé's doctoral work was done under Gwendolyn T. Sorell and included work on the Adult Identity Development Project. Her dissertation e...
Go to Profile#2093
Alan Lizotte
#142134
Overall Influence
1948 - 2022 (74 years)
Alan Jeffrey Lizotte is an American criminologist and Distinguished Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany. Early life and education Lizotte grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he later recalled almost everyone he knew owning a gun. He served in the United States Navy from July 1966 to January 1970. His service included one tour on the USS Jouett in the Vietnam War, and one-and-a-half tours in the Inshore Undersea Warfare Group One, Unit 2, on land; he attained the rank of Second Class Petty Officer as a radioman before being discharged. He later received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Brown University in 1974, followed by a M.A.
Go to Profile#2094
Helen A. Moore
#126419
Overall Influence
Helen Anne Moore is a feminist sociologist who studies educational inequality, especially in connection with Native American issues. She is Aaron Douglass Professor Emerita of Sociology and Professor Emeritus of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Go to Profile#2095
C. J. Pascoe
#133294
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (50 years)
Cheri Jo Pascoe is an American sociologist and author. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on gender, youth, homophobia, sexuality and news media. She is currently one of the editors of the journal Socius.
Go to Profile#2096
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
#13734
Overall Influence
1924 - 2014 (90 years)
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi , commonly called "Reb Zalman" , was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue. Early life Born Meshullam Zalman Schachter in 1924 to Shlomo and Hayyah Gittel Schachter in Żółkiew, Poland , Schachter was raised in Vienna, Austria. His father was a liberal Belzer hasid and had Zalman educated at both a Zionist high school and an Orthodox yeshiva. Schachter was interned in detention camps under the Vichy French and fled the Nazi advance by fleeing to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi...
Go to Profile#2097
Andrea L. Press
#125211
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Andrea Lee Press is an American sociologist and media studies scholar. She is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Media Studies and Sociology, and Chair of the Media Studies Department, at the University of Virginia.
Go to Profile#2098
Ivar Frønes
#144518
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Ivar Frønes is a Norwegian sociologist. He graduated with a mag.art. degree in 1975, and took the dr.philos. degree in 1995. He was hired at the University of Oslo in 1986 and is now professor. Selected bibliography De likeverdige - Om sosialisering og de jevnaldrendes betydning, 2006Mellom to kulturer, with Katrine Fangen, 2006Tegn tekst og samfunn, with Odd Are Berkaak, 2005Annerledeslandet, 2005Dialog, selv og samfunn, with Tone S. Wetlesen, 2004Det norske samfunn, co-editor with Lise Kjølsrød, 2003Digitale skiller, 2002Handling, kultur og mening, 2001På sporet av den nye tid, 2000Among P...
Go to Profile#2099
Seo Dong-jin
#132417
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Seo Dong-jin is a South Korean sociologist, a cultural critic and a university professor. He was one of the first main activists of the Korean Gay men human rights association Chingusai. Aside from his activities, he introduced queer theory in Korea and had a central role in the apparition of LGBTQ+ gatherings in Korean universities.
Go to Profile#2100
Adrian Franklin
#164309
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Adrian S. Franklin is a British social anthropologist, currently Professor of Creative Industries and Cultural Policy at the University of South Australia. He has worked on television for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked on several ABC radio and television programs such as By Design on ABC Radio National and the television series Collectors where, with Gordon Brown and Claudia Chan Shaw, he was one of the panel of experts
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