Congratulations to CCS Junior Fellow Anne Taylor who has accepted an Assistant Professor (TT) position in the Sociology & Anthropology department at Mount Holyoke College.
Mount Holyoke has long been considered one of the USA’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges, and as a consequence faculty positions are highly sought after. It was recently awarded a Research College designation by the American Council on Education, this making it a peer of many R1 research institutions. The ranking reflects the strong orientation of Mount Holyoke to knowledge production as well as first rate undergraduate education.
Anne tells us, “My research explores the ways in which people find joy and belonging in life, including how they overcome structural and symbolic obstacles to do so. I am particularly interested in theorizing the interpretive agency of audiences in social performance to capture the lived realities of people whose political, religious, or cultural lives do not fit within existing sociological constructs. Currently, I am writing about how performance theory illuminates the increasingly blurry boundaries between traditional religion and so-called secular culture via case studies in media, sport, and travel, including American travel writer Rick Steves, famous for his guidebook series on European travel and his nearly four decade-long travel show on PBS, “Travel with Rick Steves.” I’ve published peer-reviewed articles in Cultural Sociology, the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Sociologica, and Material Religion, and in 2023, I won the British Sociological Association’s SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence for my article “Audience Agency in Social Performance.” I look forward to joining the historic Mount Holyoke Sociology department, where I will be teaching Introduction to Sociology and undergraduate courses on culture, secularism, and religion.”
We are excited for Anne and are especially happy that she will remain in close proximity to our center, where we look forward to welcoming her often in the coming years.