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,
#2201
György Csepeli
#126293
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
György Csepeli is a Hungarian social psychologist, sociologist, politician, professor emeritus at the Eötvös Loránd University , former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Information of Hungary. His research, books, papers and talks focus on antiziganism, antisemitism and foundational problems of information society and social psychology.
Go to Profile#2202
Suzanna Danuta Walters
#151885
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Suzanna Danuta Walters is the director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and professor of sociology at Northeastern University, Boston. She is also the editor-in-chief of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and the author of several books, including The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality. She is the author of the op-ed "Why can't we hate men?" in The Washington Post.
Go to Profile#2203
James D. Weinrich
#142505
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
James Donald "Jim" Weinrich is an American sex researcher and psychobiologist. Much of his work examines the relationship of biology and sexual orientation. He won the Outstanding Contributions to Sexual Science Award at the 2011 Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Western Region annual meeting. He has also won the SSSS Hugo Beigel Award for the best paper published in The Journal of Sex Research . Weinrich served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Bisexuality from 2011 to 2014. He has also served on the editorial boards for The Journal of Sex Research and the Journal of Homo...
Go to Profile#2204
Stuart Cameron
#110865
Overall Influence
Stuart Cameron is Senior Lecturer at School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. He has been the first Director of Global Urban Research Unit. A sociologist and town planner by background, his current research and publications are on area-based regeneration, urban regeneration, social exclusion and housing and the linkages between them. His current works focus on the housing systems, social inclusion, and implications of policies involving the physical restructuring of unpopular neighbourhoods with a European comparative element.
Go to Profile#2205
James Mannon
#90107
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
James M. Mannon is a professor emeritus of sociology at DePauw University in Indiana, and until his retirement held the Larz A. Whitcomb Professorship of Sociology at DePauw. Mannon did his undergraduate and graduate studies at Southern Illinois University, and worked at Millikin University , Monmouth College , and Southern Illinois University before joining the DePauw faculty in 1975. He retired in 2001.
Go to Profile#2206
Joy G. Dryfoos
#118247
Overall Influence
1925 - 2012 (87 years)
Joy G. Dryfoos was an American sociologist who is credited with the creation of the concept of full-service schools. Early life and education Dryfoos was born to Mr. and Mrs. Gidding in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1925. She had one brother.
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Imanol Ordorika Sacristán
#84668
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Imanol Ordorika Sacristán is a Mexican social activist, political leader, academic and intellectual. He was one of the initiators and principal leaders of the Consejo Estudiantil Universitario at the National Autonomous University of Mexico , with Carlos Imaz Gispert and Antonio Santos Romero, from 1986 to 1990. A founder and prominent member of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática until 2001. Professor of social sciences and education at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Ordorika is an active participant in the Mexican political debate as well as an Op-ed writer for La Jorna...
Go to Profile#2208
Gwynne Nettler
#168802
Overall Influence
1913 - 2007 (94 years)
Gwynne Nettler was a Canadian sociologist, psychologist, and movie stuntman who taught at the University of Alberta from 1963 to 1978. Biography When Nettler was young, he acted as a stuntman in multiple Tarzan films, as well as the original Mutiny on the Bounty film. He was also a talented swimmer, and was on a water polo team. He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles , Claremont College , and Stanford University . Early in his career, he worked as the senior clinical psychologist at the Nevada State Department of Health, and as an industrial psychologist in Mexico City, Mexico.
Go to Profile#2209
Xawery Stańczyk
#104569
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (39 years)
Xawery Tadeusz Stańczyk is a Polish poet, sociologist and essayist. Life Xawery Stańczyk was born in 1985 in Poland. His debut poetry book Skarb piratów was nominated to Nike Award. The reviews of his work have been published in Newsweek, Dwutygodnik and Art Papier amongst others. His main fields of interest are popular music, social movements, youth culture, and public spaces in socialist and post-socialist Eastern Europe.
Go to Profile#2210
Nancy Kleniewski
#65113
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Nancy Kleniewski is an American sociologist and academic administrator who served as the president of the State University of New York at Oneonta. Career Kleniewski was a sociologist and held administrative posts at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the State University of New York at Geneseo. She was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bridgewater State College. From 2008 to 2018, Kleniewski was president of the State University of New York at Oneonta. She was the first female in that role at Oneonta.
Go to Profile#2211
Marilyn J. Boxer
#177978
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
Marilyn J. Boxer is a historian in the field of women's studies, one of the earliest in that field. She served as chair of the women's studies program at San Diego State University, the first program of its kind in the U.S., and later in various academic and administrative leadership roles there and at San Francisco State University.
Go to Profile#2212
Nihad Awad
#19746
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Nihad Awad is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations . Early life Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. He studied at Second Amman Preparatory School for Boys, located at the camp and belongs to UNRWA, and at Salaheddine High School in Achrafieh in Jordan. He moved to Italy and later to the United States to pursue his university studies.
Go to Profile#2213
Daniel Cazés
#168735
Overall Influence
1939 - 2012 (73 years)
Daniel Cazés Menache was a Mexican anthropologist and gender studies scholar. Works "Indigenismo en México. Pasado y presente", en Historia y sociedad "El pueblo matlatzinca de San Francisco Oxtotilpan y su lengua" prólogo de El desarrollo del subdesarrollo, de A. G. Frank Tres culturas en agonía Los revolucionarios Epigraphie Maya et linguistique mayanne "Memorias de mi relación con el feminismo y las feministas", en Fem La Universidad Autónoma de Puebla en 1981 La restructuración de la Universidad Autónoma de Puebla "Con el feminismo en casa" en DobleJornada , suplemento del periódico La Jo...
Go to Profile#2214
Uri Davis
#23157
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Uriel "Uri" Davis is an academic and civil rights activist. Davis has served as Vice-Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and as lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. Davis describes himself as "a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state - the State of Israel." A member of Fatah since 1984, he was elected to the Revolutionary Council for the Palestinian party in 2009.
Go to Profile#2215
Carroll Seron
#139636
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Carroll Seron is an American sociologist and Professor of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine . Her research focuses on legal organizations and professions. She has also studied gender disparities in engineering employment, arguing that they are due to gender bias in stereotypes and engineering culture.
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Louise Slade
#146783
Overall Influence
1946 - 2021 (75 years)
Louise Slade was a food scientist known for her work on food polymer science. She was an elected fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists and of the American Association of Cereal Chemists. Education and career Slade was born in South Carolina in 1946 and was a dancer who briefly attended the Juilliard School. She moved on to Barnard College, first interested in botany but dissuaded by the low level of available funding so she instead studied biochemistry, and received her bachelor's degree in 1968. She went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1974, and subsequently was a postd...
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Howard F. Taylor
#94885
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Howard Francis Taylor is an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Princeton University, where he was formerly the director of the African-American Studies program. He is known for his 1980 book The IQ Game, in which he reanalyzed data from several previous reared-apart twin studies of the heritability of IQ. The book concluded, controversially, that the influence of genes on individual differences in IQ scores was small.
Go to Profile#2218
Kate Pahl
#175764
Overall Influence
Kate Heron Pahl is Professor of Literacies and Head of Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work draws on arts and humanities methodologies to co-produce knowledge with community partners and the intersections between arts methodologies and community cohesion. Her publications have drawn on literary theory, New Literacy Studies and social anthropology.
Go to Profile#2219
Zandria Robinson
#166887
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (42 years)
Zandria F. Robinson is an American writer and scholar. Her work focuses on popular music, ethnography, and race and culture in the American south. She is the author of two books: This Ain't Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South and Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life . Robinson is an associate professor of African-American studies at Georgetown University.
Go to Profile#2220
Emily Agree
#168286
Overall Influence
Emily M. Agree is an American sociologist. She is a professor of sociology in the Departments of Sociology and Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University, and associate director at the Hopkins Population Center.
Go to Profile#2221
Rose McGowan
#25716
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Rósa Arianna "Rose" McGowan is an American actress and activist. After her film debut in a brief role in the comedy Encino Man , McGowan achieved recognition for her performance in the dark comedy The Doom Generation , receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance. She had her breakthrough in the horror film Scream and subsequently headlined the films Going All the Way , Devil in the Flesh and Jawbreaker .
Go to Profile#2222
Leon Anderson
#102389
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Leon Anderson is an American sociologist, academic and researcher. He is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ohio University and Utah State University. Anderson's primary scholarly contributions fall in social inequality and qualitative social science research methods. Among these, he has focused on sociology of deviance, qualitative research methods, homelessness, and auto-ethnographic methods. Anderson has authored or coauthored several books including, Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People, Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis 4th Edition and Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries.
Go to Profile#2223
Katrina Brown
#90982
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (123 years)
Katrina Brown is a Professor of Social Sciences, at the University of Exeter. From 1991–2012, she was a Professor of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. Education Brown has a BSc from University of Newcastle upon Tyne, an MSc from the University of Reading, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham. Following her Ph.D, she was at the University of East Anglia until 2012 at which point she moved to the University of Exeter.
Go to Profile#2224
Jean-Jacques Simard
#176729
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Jean-Jacques Simard is a Québécois professor and sociologist. He has been professor of sociology at Université Laval since 1976. He began the first project into modern autonomous Inuit government in Canada. A critic of hydroelectric development in Baie-James, he left public function to become a counsellor for Inuit dissidents in the famous James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.
Go to Profile#2225
Dylan John Riley
#129674
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Dylan John Riley is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and is on the editorial committee of the New Left Review . He writes for the NLR and Jacobin. Publications Books Doctoral dissertation, Hegemony and Domination: Civil Society and Regime Variation in Inter-War Europe, University of California, Los Angeles, 2002The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe: Italy, Spain, and Romania 1870-1945, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010How Societies and States Count: A Comparative Genealogy of Censuses with Rebecca Jean Emigh and Patricia Ahmed, Palgrave Press, 2016:Vo...
Go to Profile#2226
Alexandre Baril
#120291
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (45 years)
Alexandre Baril , is a Canadian writer and since 2018 an associate professor at the School of Social Work, at the University of Ottawa. He researches sexual and gender diversity, bodily diversity , and linguistic diversity. He considers his work to be intersectional, involving queer, trans, feminist and gender studies, as well as sociology of the body, health, social movements, and of critical suicidology.
Go to Profile#2227
Lee Robins
#43473
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Lee Nelken Robins was an American professor of social science in psychiatry and a leader in psychiatric epidemiology research. She was affiliated with the Washington University in St. Louis for more than 50 years from 1954 until 2007.
Go to Profile#2228
Rutledge Dennis
#89552
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Rutledge Melvin Dennis is an American sociologist who is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University. A noted expert on the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, he was formerly the first coordinator of African American studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. He was the president of the Association of Black Sociologists from 1982 to 1983. In 2001, he received the Association's Joseph S. Himes Distinguished Scholarship Award. In 2006, he received the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association. The statement accompanying this award described Dennis a...
Go to Profile#2229
Dag Album
#136051
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Dag Gunnar Album is a Norwegian sociologist. He graduated from the University of Oslo with a cand.sociol. degree in 1972, and took the dr.philos. degree in 1996. He then worked as a research assistant at the University of Tromsø and as a researcher at Statistics Norway. He then returned to the University of Oslo in 1997 to become professor.
Go to Profile#2230
Mary Lindenstein Walshok
#139717
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Dr. Mary Lindenstein Walshok RNO1kl is an American educational sociologist. Education B.A. in 1964 Pomona CollegeM.A. in 1967, Indiana UniversityPh.D. in 1969, Indiana University Career She has been on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego since 1972. The focus of her career has been understanding and fostering the growth of local and regional economies throughout the world. She is the Associate Vice Chancellor of Public Programs at UCSD. Until 2021 she also served as the Dean of Extended Studies and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology. The Department of ...
Go to Profile#2231
Anders Björklund
#181014
Overall Influence
#2232
M. Cristina Alcalde
#157819
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
M. Cristina Alcalde is Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion at Miami University. Previously, she served as Marie Rich Endowed Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Kentucky, where she was also Associate Dean of Inclusion and Internationalization in the College of Arts and Sciences at the university. There, she was also an affiliate faculty member in the Social Theory, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies, and Anthropology departments and worked with the Center for Research on Violence Against Women. Her research focuses on exclusion, leadersh...
Go to Profile#2233
Constance Kies
#168955
Overall Influence
1934 - 1993 (59 years)
Constance Virginia Kies was an American nutrition scientist and dietitian. Kies worked as a public school teacher for three years before going against the traditional gender norms of her time and completing an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Over the duration of her 30-year career at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Kies researched nutritional biochemistry. She demonstrated relationships between minerals, proteins, and dietary fiber through pioneering human subject research. Her findings led to advancements in human knowledge of copper and protein metabolism. She was honored with the Borden Award and was a fellow of the American College of Nutrition.
Go to Profile#2234
Ettore Recchi
#171906
Overall Influence
Ettore Recchi is an academic and Director of the MA and PhD program in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris as well as a part-time professor at the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. His research focuses on human mobility, social stratification, elites and European integration.
Go to Profile#2235
Marguerite Ross Barnett
#71023
Overall Influence
1942 - 1992 (50 years)
Overview Marguerite Ross Barnett was the eighth president of the University of Houston and a former chancellor of the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Barnett was the first African American woman to lead a major American university.
Go to Profile#2236
Luiz de Aguiar Costa Pinto
#120248
Overall Influence
1920 - 2002 (82 years)
Luiz de Aguiar Costa Pinto was a Brazilian sociologist. In his work, Costa Pinto specialized in race relations in Brazil. He was one of the authors of the landmark UNESCO statement The Race Question, in 1950. In the latter part of his career, in Canada, Costa Pinto taught first at Queen's University, and then at the University of Waterloo.
Go to Profile#2237
Toni Bruce
#172696
Overall Influence
Toni Bruce is a New Zealand sociology academic, specialising in the sociology of sport. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland. She gained her Masters and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois in the USA. She previously worked at the University of New Hampshire University of Canberra and University of Waikato . While teaching at the University of Auckland Bruce participated in many fields of research. Her main topics involve sports media, gender issues, nationalism, race/ethnicity and disability. Bruce is an expert in many different topics including journalism, m...
Go to Profile#2238
Marju Lauristin
#112534
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Marju Lauristin is an Estonian politician, and former Member of the European Parliament and Minister of Social Affairs. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. Lauristin is currently a member of the Tartu city council.
Go to Profile#2239
Bobby William Austin
#112152
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Bobby William Austin is an American sociologist, lecturer, and writer. He is a leading scholar on African-American men and boys and was the first person, as a Program Officer with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to fund major philanthropic initiatives for African-American men and boys. Over the past 30 years, in the fields of education, social policy, youth development, cultural theory, philanthropy and religion, he has created a series of structured venues as pathways for how citizens might live life in communities as individuals and as members of groups where peace, meaning, and innovation are nurtured.
Go to Profile#2240
Walter Müller
#181457
Overall Influence
#2241
Stefano Harney
#77267
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Stefano Harney is an American activist and scholar. Prior to relocating to Brazil, Harney taught at Singapore Management University, but was dismissed in part for awarding all his students A grades. Since then, he has taught at Royal Holloway, University of London as well as at the European Graduate School.
Go to Profile#2242
Marc Gertz
#58703
Overall Influence
Marc G. Gertz is an American criminologist and professor at the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. His research includes an influential 1995 survey he conducted with his Florida State University colleague, Gary Kleck, on the frequency of defensive gun use.
Go to Profile#2243
Velma McBride Murry
#171454
Overall Influence
Velma McBride Murry is an American psychologist and sociologist, currently the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development and Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her research has largely focused on resilience and protective factors for African-American families, and she has several publications in this area. In addition to her empirical research, she has contributed to several published books and used her experience to create two family-based preventative intervention programs.
Go to Profile#2244
Tim Jordan
#146556
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Tim Jordan is a professor at the University College London where he is also Head of the programme in Arts and Sciences . Prior to that, he worked at the University of Sussex, King's College London in culture, media and creative industries and digital humanities departments, and has previously worked as the head of the sociology department at the Open University. He has published his work on hacking and online cultures. He was co-founder of the journal Social Movement Studies.
Go to Profile#2245
Colin Loftin
#172163
Overall Influence
Colin Loftin is an American criminologist and Distinguished Professor at the University at Albany School of Criminal Justice. At the University at Albany, he is also the co-director of the Violence Research Group, along with David McDowall.
Go to Profile#2246
Georges-Henri Lévesque
#22372
Overall Influence
1903 - 2000 (97 years)
Georges-Henri Lévesque was a Canadian Dominican priest and sociologist and a liberal figure during the conservative Duplessis era in Quebec. Biography Born in Roberval, Quebec, the son of Georges Lévesque and Laura Richard, he was ordained into the priesthood in 1928. He studied philosophy and theology at the Dominican College in Ottawa and social sciences at the School of Social Sciences of the Université Catholique de Lille .
Go to Profile#2247
Eleanor Bernert Sheldon
#150113
Overall Influence
1920 - 2021 (101 years)
Eleanor Harriet Bernert Sheldon was an American sociologist who was president of the Social Science Research Council from 1972 to 1979, and was one of the key pioneers in the use of social indicators in sociology. In the 1970s, as multinational corporations recognized the need to appoint women to their boards of directors, Sheldon became the first woman to serve on the boards of several major companies, including Citibank, Mobil, Heinz, and Equitable Holdings.
Go to Profile#2248
Mumia Abu-Jamal
#26160
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an American political activist and journalist who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. While on death row, he has written and commented on the criminal justice system in the United States. After numerous appeals, his death penalty sentence was overturned by a federal court. In 2011, the prosecution agreed to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. He entered the general prison population early the following year.
Go to Profile#2249
Sheila Kitzinger
#19995
Overall Influence
1929 - 2015 (86 years)
Sheila Helena Elizabeth Kitzinger MBE was a British natural childbirth activist and author on childbirth and pregnancy. She wrote more than 20 books and had a worldwide reputation as a passionate and committed advocate for change.
Go to Profile#2250
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée
#87925
Overall Influence
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée is a professor with joint appointment in the Departments of Sociology and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, as well as Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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