Jeff Goodwin

Jeffrey Roger Goodwin (born January 28, 1958) is a professor of sociology at New York University.

His research interests include social movements, revolutions, political violence, and terrorism. He has also written about W. E. B. Du Bois and the black radical tradition, including Black Marxism. He has served as chair of several sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and was coeditor of the ASA journal Contexts from 2004 to 2007.

The underlying argument of his best known book, No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991, is that revolutionary movements are not only a response to economic inequality or exploitation, but are also, and more regularly, a response to political repression and indiscriminate violence by weak, or suddenly weakened, authoritarian regimes.

Early life and education
Goodwin was born in Hollywood, Florida, and grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. His parents were public school teachers in Broward County. He graduated from Nova High School in Davie, Florida, in 1976. Goodwin attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Social studies in 1980, and later obtained a Master of Arts (MA) and, in November 1988, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Sociology. His graduate-school cohort included Michael Macy, Ellen Immergut, and Calvin Morrill. Theda Skocpol chaired his dissertation committee.

Career
Following his doctoral studies, Goodwin began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Northwestern University from 1989 to 1991. Goodwin then moved to New York University (NYU) in 1991, serving as an Assistant Professor of Sociology until 1997. He progressed to the rank of Associate Professor of Sociology until 2003, when he was promoted to full Professor of Sociology, a position he has held since. In 2009, Goodwin served as a Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

Throughout his academic career, Goodwin has been actively involved in various academic organizations, holding elective offices such as executive board member positions in the International Sociological Association and the Eastern Sociological Society as well as in the ASA.

Goodwin has been elected chair of four sections of the ASA, namely, the Comparative and Historical Sociology section, the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section, the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section, and the Section on Marxist Sociology.

Research
Goodwin has written and edited a number of works with his friend and former NYU colleague James M. Jasper. They wrote a famous critique of the political-opportunity theory developed by Charles Tilly and Doug McAdam, republished in Rethinking Social Movements, which Goodwin and Jasper edited. They also edited The Contexts Reader (New York: W. W. Norton), Social Movements (Routledge), The Social Movements Reader (Wiley-Blackwell), and (with Francesca Polletta) Passionate Politics (University of Chicago Press), a leading work in the sociology of emotions. Goodwin has also written a series of papers on revolutions and terrorism, respectively.

Advocacy
Goodwin has long been a critic of U.S. support for governments and other actors engaged in gross human rights abuses, from apartheid South Africa to Central America to Israel. In October 2011, Goodwin was one of 132 New York University (NYU) faculty and staff members who signed a statement calling for disinvestment in several American companies that do business in Israel. In response to sharp criticism from Congressman Gary Ackerman, Goodwin accused Ackerman of moral blindness and stated that "Ackerman's apparent denial that Israel is occupying Palestinian territories and systematically violating basic Palestinian rights is simply shocking." Goodwin is a long-time member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Awards and recognition

 * Golden Dozen Outstanding Teaching Award (2010) from NYU for undergraduate teaching


 * Voted “Professor of the Year” by the NYU Department of Sociology’s Graduate Student Association (GSA) in 2009-10, 2005-2006, and 1997-1998
 * Best scholarly article award, honorable mention, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association in 2007, for “A Theory of Categorical Terrorism,” Social Forces (2006)
 * Mattei Dogan Award, honorable mention (for best book published in the field of comparative research), Society for Comparative Research, 2003, for No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
 * Outstanding Book Prize, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association in 2002, for No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
 * Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, honorable mention, Eastern Sociological Society, 2002, for No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
 * Barrington Moore Prize for the best article in the field of comparative-historical sociology from the Comparative-Historical Section of the American Sociological Association in 1999, for “The Libidinal Constitution of a High-Risk Social Movement: Affectual Ties and Solidarity in the Huk Rebellion, 1946 to 1954,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 53-69
 * Best article award in the field of cultural sociology from the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association in 1995, for Mustafa Emirbayer and Jeff Goodwin (1994), “Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 99, No. 6, pp. 1411-1454
 * American Sociological Association/National Science Foundation Small Grant for research on “The Gender(ing) of Collective Action: The Role of Women in the Huk Rebellion in the Philippines” (with Vina A. Lanzona), December 1992-December 1993
 * Doctoral dissertation was one of five finalists for the Council of Graduate Schools/ University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award for 1990