Professor Michael Burawoy, 1947-2025
Burawoy joined the Berkeley Sociology Department as an Assistant Professor in 1976, after earning his PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago (1976) under the supervision of Professor William Julius Wilson. Burawoy’s scholarship, graduate mentorship, undergraduate teaching, and professional leadership profoundly shaped the Berkeley sociology department, the discipline, the profession, the university, and sociological practice and publics around the globe. He retired in 2023 after 47 years of service to the university, but he continued to mentor graduate students and remained very active in the discipline.
For nearly five decades, Professor Burawoy was a leading intellectual influence in the
discipline. He published 12 books and well over 120 papers, essays, and book chapters. Many of Burawoy’s published works, including Manufacturing Consent (1979), The Politics of Production (1985), and The Extended Case Method (2009), were translated into multiple languages. He is famous for his myriad generative contributions to sociological theory, sociological methods, analyses of labor processes in industrial worksites, analyses of the university as a place of work, and especially in more recent years, for his work to advance public sociology as a distinctive, legitimate mode of doing sociology in and through engagement with non-academic practitioners and collaborators, always with an orientation to the public good. His contributions to the profession have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Marxist Section of the American Sociological Association (2020) as well as the W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award (2024).
Burawoy was a transformative leader on campus and in the profession. He served as Sociology Department Chair (1996-1998, 2000-2002) as well as co-Chair and Secretary of the Berkeley Faculty Association (2015-2021). He was elected President of the American Sociological Association (2003-2004) as well as President of the International Sociological Association (2010-2014). Across these various constituencies and communities, Michael Burawoy’s leadership and service was characterized by intellectual vision, political commitment to raise voices of those at “the bottom” or the margins, dedication to advance the public good, and integrity, generosity, compassion, and good humor.
As President of American Sociological Association, Burawoy developed and advanced his call for “public sociology” a call that energized more diverse and younger generations of sociologists to practice sociology through proactive engagement with concerns and questions that emanate from communities beyond academia. As President of the International Sociological Association, Burawoy made sustained and effective efforts to build infrastructure for sustained scholarly exchange among and between scholars of the “global south” and the “global north.” His contributions as ISA president made a huge impact on American sociology by increasing openness and attention to global issues and exerting counter-pressure on some of the inward focused, provincializing tendencies of the discipline in the U.S. He was founding editor of a new ISA journal called Global Dialogue (2010-2017) that featured the work and ideas of sociologists from around the world, translated into multiple languages to reduce barriers to scholarly exchange, and to remove excuses for failure by U.S. based scholars to engage with scholars from the global south.
Burawoy’s teaching and advising were legendary, as were his commitments to the continual improvement of pedagogy and to sustaining accessible, high-quality public higher education. He won numerous accolades for his teaching and mentorship at the graduate and undergraduate levels over his career, including the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award (1979), the American Sociological Association Distinguished Teaching Award (2003), and the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs (2007). His impact on students was profound. He supervised no fewer than 80 dissertations. And for four decades, he taught the department’s required undergraduate theory sequence and was renowned for learning the name of each and every undergraduate student he taught by the second week of class, even in large lectures with more than 200 students.
Upon his retirement, Professor Burawoy was awarded the Berkeley Citation (2023), one of the campus’ top honors, reserved for “distinguished individuals or organizations…whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields.”
Remembrances and Tributes
Michael dedicated 47 years of his life to Berkeley, contributing immeasurably to the discipline, transforming the fields of labor, ethnography and theory. He was past president of the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association. His greatest legacy, though, went far beyond the many books and articles he published or prestigious awards he received -- it was in the people whose lives he changed. He was an extraordinary teacher, who mentored and inspired thousands of students, changing their lives with his fierce intellect and kindness.
He mentored me when I first arrived at Berkeley as an assistant professor. I learned to love Berkeley through his eyes. I learned what it meant to teach, to mentor, to do research seriously, and above all, what devotion to one’s calling looked like. I am grateful that in my present position as dean, I will always have his voice in my ear, reminding me that it is my duty to think above all about the needs of those most disadvantaged, the powerless, those who had to fight to get here.
I will miss him always as a beloved friend, mentor and comrade. An unimaginable loss.
Tribute from the Berkeley Faculty Association
The Brazilian Society of Sociology (SBS) expresses its profound condolences upon hearing news of the death of Michael Burawoy, professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and former president of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the International Sociological Association (ISA). Throughout his career, Michael articulated like few others, the multiple dimensions of a sociologist's job as educator, researcher, and activist.
As a sociologist, Michael was renowned for the extended case method, which he developed at the School of Anthropology in Manchester, his home city. During his field research –which began in the 1960s in a copper mine in Zambia, continued in an engine company in Chicago in the 1970s, in factories and steel mills in Hungary in the 1980s and, finally, in a modular furniture factory in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s – Michael perfected the theoretical-methodological tool that would make him known worldwide. He specialized in combining critical sociology with heterodox Marxism. In addition to classical Marxists, he drew upon thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky and Frantz Fanon in order to reconstruct the capacity for practical intervention through critical thinking, both inside and outside the university.
At the same time, he supervised his graduate students’ ethnographic projects across the globe. Among his many contributions, three stand out: the sociology of labor, sociological Marxism, and public sociology. In the case of the sociology of labor, books such as Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism and Politics of Production: Factory Regimes under Capitalism and Socialism, were critical. They led to revisions of previous analyses and generated new perspectives in the field.
Alongside his close friend, Erik Olin Wright, Michael engaged in a broad theoretical project to reconstruct “sociological Marxism” – defined as the theory of the contradictory reproduction of capitalist social relations – whose objective was to rescue the emancipatory power of Marxist theory, dismantled after the collapse of bureaucratic state socialism, starting from the critical production of empirical data. This theoretical-political program was carried forward through two major initiatives: Erik Olin Wright created the “real utopias” project, while Michael developed his proposal for a “public sociology.”
Both Michael and Erik endeavored to “reconstruct Marxism” by inviting the sociological community to be part of a broad social movement to transform capitalism through critical engagement with different audiences, academic and non-academic, that make up the world of sociology. Michael nurtured strong relationships in Brazil, visiting us among us on several occasions, whether to participate in meetings of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in the Social Sciences (ANPOCS), Brazilian Sociological Society (SBS) and Latin American Association of Sociology (ALAS) Congresses, or to give seminars at universities across the country. Some of his books have been translated into Portuguese, such as Marxism Meets Bourdieu (Editora da Unicamp) and Sociological Marxism (Editora Alameda).
Michael cultivated personal relationships in ways that few others do. Everyone who had the privilege and joy of knowing him, whether as a teacher, colleague, or friend, know that he was simply remarkable. The world of sociology mourns this tragic, violent, and senseless death, demanding immediate clarification from the Oakland police authorities. The large extended family he cultivated throughout his life, however, celebrates his legacy of knowledge, empathy, generosity, passion, wisdom, and solidarity.
Text by: Ruy Braga, Professor, Sociology Department, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), and Marco Aurélio Santana, Professor, Sociology Department, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); Translated by: Alice Taylor (E Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver)
One of the things that those of us who loved Michael Burawoy loved so much about him, was that he was SO much fun and SO hysterically funny.
In 2001, we, his seven TAs for social theory, decided it would be hilarious to take the world famous Marxist sociologist to the mecca of capitalism for spring break—Las Vegas. He was game for anything, and he PAID for everything we ate there too! I think we took him to the cleaners after one meal at the Paris.
He was a good sport when we insisted he try the water massage machine—we even prepaid for it so he could not say no. The machine tickled and so he couldn't stop giggling— which resulted in all of us ROLLING on the floor laughing so hard we could barely breathe….
Eréndira dared him to wear red leather pants to the sociology department holiday party. He said, "Where am I going to get red leather pants?" (he was trying to get out of it). So Eren said, "I'll take you shopping for them." She took him to a thrift store and found these for him and he kept his end of the bargain. He looked too cute!
Everyone who worked with Michael adored him. He brought out the best in all of us, and he cared SO MUCH for all of his students.
He and I had a running joke because he thought I hugged too much. He'd say "Don't come near me with your hugs, Tamara!" Then when I graduated from Berkeley...He gave me one of the biggest, warmest hugs of my life, laughing the entire time.
Eréndira Rueda took this beautiful photo of Michael with his great friend Erik Olin Wright in 2002. Every Thursday night after our weekly TA meeting, Michael treated the seven of us to a REALLY nice dinner (wine always included). Erik joined one night at Yoshi's for dinner and music. When Erik passed away, both Eren and I separately had the same thought—had Michael saved it digitally after 18 years? He was a Luddite, without a tv, cell phone, or car, so who knew? We each sent it to him and got the same response—yes, he still had it and "This was Erik's favorite photo of us.” We knew it was his, too.
-- Tamara Kay, Professor of Global Affairs and Sociology, University of Notre Dame, Berkeley PhD 2004.
A truly inspirational professor who will always be remembered. I was incredibly fortunate to have him as one of the advisors for my master’s thesis back in 1981. I still recall his insightful comments, which motivated me to work harder and produce a better paper. His classes and seminars left a lasting impression on me and continue to shape my worldview to this day. I am deeply saddened by the sudden loss of such an extraordinary teacher.
Pamela Stefanowicz, UC Berkeley - Class of 1979 (B.A.) and 1981 (M.A.)