Theda Skocpol

Theda Skocpol (born May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University. She served from 2005 to 2007 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Influential in sociology as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, and in political science for her "state autonomy theory", Skocpol has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. In 2007, Skocpol was awarded the Jo... more

Theda Skocpol (born May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University. She served from 2005 to 2007 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Influential in sociology as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, and in political science for her "state autonomy theory", Skocpol has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. In 2007, Skocpol was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, one of the world's most prestigious prizes in political science. Skocpol was born in Detroit, Michigan and her undergraduate education was at Michigan State University (B.A., 1969). She went on to Harvard (Ph.D., 1976), where she studied with Barrington Moore Jr. In 1979, she published States and Social Revolutions, a comparative analysis of social revolutions in Russia, France, and China. Some of her subsequent work focused on methodology and theory, including the co-edited volume Bringing the State Back... less