Eleanor Townsley is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Sociology at Mount Holyoke College. She is a sociologist whose research examines the possibilities of intellectual life in contemporary societies. Townsley’s early work focused on social science professionalization in the United States during the 1960s and the role of the intelligentsia in transitions from socialism in Central Europe. More recent research examines the nature and influence of media intellectuals and media formats in the space of opinion, with projects that explore questions of expertise in digital contexts, scale in digital public spheres, and the legacy of design intellectuals in social theory and intellectual life.
Townsley’s research has been published in the American Sociologist, the European Journal of Social Theory, Theory & Society, Theory, Culture & Society, Gender and Society, Thesis Eleven, and New Left Review. She is co-author of Making Capitalism without Capitalists (Verso, 2001), The Space of Opinion (2011) and Living Sociologically (2019).