Eric Malczewski

Eric Malczewski is a social theorist working in the areas of social and political theory, philosophy of the human sciences, sociological theory, sociology of knowledge, and culture. He has published on the organizing principles of social science, epistemological issues in social and sociological theory, nationalism, culture, and conceptions of nature in American culture and 19th century American landscape painting. He develops the thought of Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Ferdinand Tönnies.

His work has been published in Sociological Theory, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Sociology Lens/The Journal of Historical Sociology, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Cosmos+Taxis, Current Perspectives in Social Theory, The Turkish Journal of Sociology, The Anthem Companion to Robert K. Merton, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in STEM (SAGE), Research Handbook on Nationalism (Oxford: Edward Elgar), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism, Handbook of Cultural Sociology (SAGE), and Handbook of Politics: State and Society in Global Perspective (Routledge).

Presently, he is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in The Bill Lane Center for the American West. He also is a Faculty Fellow at Yale University in the Center for Cultural Sociology (with which he has been affiliated since 2014), a Miller Fellow at the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Founding Principles and History, and an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. In 2023-2024 he was a Humanities Associate at Virginia Tech.

He has chaired and served on several prize committees for the American Political Science Association and the American Sociological Association. He is a Member of The Ciceronian Society, The Civil Sphere Theory Network, and a Contributor to Front Porch Republic.

From 2009 to 2018 he was at Harvard University, where he was a Lecturer on Social Studies teaching social and political theory. He also taught Freshman Seminars, served on the Board of Advisors, and advised honor’s theses. His primary affiliation was with Quincy House from 2009-2017. From 2013-2018 he oversaw Harvard's Visiting Undergraduate Student Program and also was affiliated with Dudley House.

He received awards at Harvard for Distinction in Teaching in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017. In 2013 he received Social Studies' highest accolade for advising – the Harvard University Barrington Moore Award for Excellence in Advising. In 2015 he was awarded the Harvard University Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising (Harvard’s highest award for advising).

He lives in San Francisco, CA.