Jay Demerath
Entering Cohort: 1958
Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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I left Berkeley for Madison in 1962, following the lead of Warren Hagstrom and Bob Alford in previous cohorts. I finally finished my dissertation in 1964, and then, because Wisconsin had no sabbatical system and its salaries were low, its promotions were quick. By 1970, I was a Full Professor needing a break. I served two-years as Executive Officer of the ASA, with every intention of returning to UW, where I had been elected Chair. At the last moment, however I turned down this three-year administrative rotation in what had become one of the country's best departments to take the Chair at one its newest at UMass, Amherst. I have been here ever since. After serving two five-year stints as Chair in my first fifteen years, I gave up administration for full-time research and teaching. My teaching portfolio continues to include theory and culture, but my primary interest over the last twenty years has involved religion and politics, both at home (e.g. "A Bridging of Faiths," Princeton, 1992) and abroad ("Crossing the Gods," Rutgers, 2001). These are two of a dozen books on a vita that also includes a reasonable 40-year yield of papers and presentations, scholarly awards and fellowships, and association presidencies and other offices -- though the brass ring of an ASA Vice-Presidency proved too much of a reach. Finally, you ask of my self-estimate for posterity. Alas, posterity will probably little recall the author of a great Presidential address to the Ohio Valley Soc. Society whose survey showed that sociologists were inclined to feel that they themselves would be remembered quite well, thank you, but when asked to identify a long list of names, they drew a blank on most of these former Presidents of the American Sociological Society/Association [cf. F. Westie, Sociological Focus 5(4) 1972, 1-25]. For me, posterity is next semester. At this point, I am 66 years old and have begun to look deeply and suspiciously into the eyes of colleagues who say they don't want me to retire.
Dissertation: Social Class and American Protestantism