Carleton Convo with Theda Skocpol | October 25, 2024

Carleton Convos

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, delivered the Carleton convocation address on Friday, October 25 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel.

Skocpol’s work addresses a broad spectrum of questions about socio-political change, including health care reform, public policy, and civic engagement amid shifting inequalities in American democracy; currently, she is probing partisan polarization and Republican Party radicalization.

An internationally recognized scholar, Skocpol has received multiple honorary degrees — most recently from Oxford University in 2022 — and has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, she received the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for her “visionary analysis of the significance of the state for revolutions, welfare, and political trust, pursued with theoretical depth and empirical evidence.” Awarded annually by the Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University in Sweden, the Skytte Prize is one of the most prestigious in political science.

In addition to her teaching and research at Harvard, Skocpol also serves as director of the Scholars Strategy Network, an organization with dozens of regional chapters that encourages nonpartisan public engagement by university-based scholars, building ties between academics and policymakers, civic groups, and journalists. Skocpol herself speaks regularly to community groups and writes for blogs and public-interest magazines.

Among Skocpol’s major books are two multiple-award-winners — States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China and Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Other books include Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, Health Care Reform and American Politics, and The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. Her most recent books are Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti-Trump Resistance (co-edited with Caroline Tervo) and Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party (co-authored with Lainey Newman).

Although she has lived for many years in Cambridge, Massachusetts — and in Maine during the summer — Skocpol was born and raised in Michigan and received her BA from Michigan State University in 1969. She and her husband, Bill Skocpol, a retired Boston University physics professor, celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on June 10, 2017. They have one son, Michael, a graduate of Stanford Law School, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor in 2018–19 and now works for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Skocpol does not work all the time! She loves to visit antique malls, looking for various kinds of Americana — including old membership ribbon badges from unions and fraternal associations. She is also a devoted football fan who closely follows all NFL teams, but above all, the New England Patriots.

Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations