thomas medvetz

THOMAS
MEDVETZ
Department of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
401 Social Sciences Building
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92103-0533
510.717.8666 (cell)
858-534.4753 (fax)
tmedvetz@ucsd.edu
tom.medvetz@gmail.com
http://tommedvetz.net
http://sociology.ucsd.edu/faculty/bio/medvetz.shtml
Academic appointments
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2014–
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
2008–14 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
2007-08
Postdoctoral Associate, Institute for the Social Sciences
Cornell University
Education
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2007
2000
1998
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, Sociology
MA, University of California, Berkeley, Sociology
AB, Franklin & Marshall College, Sociology & English, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa,
honors distinction for Sociology
BOOK
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Thomas Medvetz. 2012. Think Tanks in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
! Honorable mention, ASA Political Sociology Section, Distinguished Contribution to
Scholarship Book Award, 2013
! Reviewed in American Journal of Sociology, Ballotage: Revista de Opinión Pública, Columbia
Journalism Review, Contemporary Sociology, Critical Policy Studies, Critique Internationale,
Forbes, Geopolitics, Gouvernement & Action Politique, Journalism: Theory, Practice and
Criticism, LSE Review of Books, Politique Étrangère, Public Books, Social Forces, Sociologica,
Theory and Society, Think Tank Watch
Journal articles
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2013
Thomas Medvetz. 2013. “Les Think Tanks dans le Champ du Pouvoir Étasunien” [“Think Tanks in
the American Field of Power”]. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 200°: 44-55.
Thomas Medvetz. 2013. “Opening the Black Box of Intellectual Autonomy.” Papers: Revista de
Sociologia 98(3): 573-579.
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2011
Neil Gross, Thomas Medvetz, and Rupert Russell. 2011. “The Contemporary American Conservative
Movement.” Annual Review of Sociology 37: 325-354.
2010
Thomas Medvetz. 2010. “‘Public Policy is Like a Having a Vaudeville Act’: Languages of Duty and
Difference Among Think Tank-Affiliated Policy Experts.” Qualitative Sociology 33(4): 549-562.
2009
Thomas Medvetz. 2009. “Les think tanks aux États-Unis: L’émergence d’un sous-espace de
production des savoirs.” [“Think Tanks in the United States: The Emergence of a Subspace of
Knowledge Production.”] Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 176-177°: 82-93.
2006
Thomas Medvetz. 2006. “The Strength of Weekly Ties: Relations of Material and Symbolic Exchange
in the Conservative Movement.” Politics & Society 34(3): 343-368.
BOOK chapters
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2014
Thomas Medvetz. 2014. “The Merits of Marginality: Think Tanks, Conservative Intellectuals, and the
Liberal Academy.” Pp. 291-308 in Neil Gross and Solon Simmons, eds. Professors and Their Politics.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Thomas Medvetz. 2014. “Field Theory and Organizational Power: Four Modes of Influence Among
Public Policy ‘Think Tanks.’” Pp. 221-237 in Mathieu Hilgers and Eric Mangez, eds. Bourdieu’s
Theory of Social Fields: Concepts and Applications. London: Routledge.
Revised and updated version of Medvetz, “Murky Power: ‘Think Tanks’ as Boundary
Organizations” (2012).
2012
Thomas Medvetz. 2012. “Murky Power: ‘Think Tanks’ as Boundary Organizations.” Pp. 113-33 in
David Courpasson, Damon Golsorkhi, and Jeffrey J. Sallaz, eds. Rethinking Forms of Power in
Organizations, Institutions, and Markets. Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
2010
Thomas Medvetz. 2010. “Terra Obscura: Vers une Théorie des Think Tanks Américains.” [“Terra
Obscura: Towards a Theory of American Think Tanks.”] Pp. 139-157 in Yann Bérard and Renaud
Crespin, eds. Aux Frontières de L’expertise: Dialogues Entre Saviors et Pouvoirs. Rennes: Presses
Universitaires de Rennes.
Other writing (Civic outreach, book Reviews, encyclopedia entries, &tC.)
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2014
Thomas Medvetz. Forthcoming, 2014. Review of The Evidence Enigma: Correctional Boot Camps and
Other Failures in Evidence-Based Policymaking, by Tiffany Bergin. Contemporary Sociology.
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Thomas Medvetz. 2014. “The Myth of Think Tank Independence.” Washington Post. September 9.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/09/09/the-myth-of-think-tankindependence/>.
2013
Thomas Medvetz. 2013. “Think Tanks in America.” VOX POP: Newsletter of Political Organizations
and Parties 31(3): 1-3.
2012
Thomas Medvetz. 2012. “Think Tanks and the Rise of Savvy Policy Entrepreneurs.” SSN Key
Findings. Scholars Strategy Network. December. <http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/
default/files/ ssn_key_findings_medvetz_on_think_tanks.pdf>.
Elizabeth Popp Berman and Thomas Medvetz. 2012. “Interview of Think Tanks in America author Tom
Medvetz.” SKATology: Newsletter of the ASA Section on Science, Knowledge & Technology. Fall: 15-19.
<http://www.monicajcasper.com/uploads/3/3/1/7/3317142/fall_2012_ skatology_newsletter.pdf>.
Thomas Medvetz. 2012. “‘Scholar as Sitting Duck’: The Cronon Affair and the Buffer Zone in
American Public Debate.” Public Culture 24(1): 47-53.
2011
Thomas Medvetz. 2011. “Junior Theorists’ Symposium, 2011.” Perspectives: Newsletter of the ASA
Theory Section 33(2): 7-8.
2010
Thomas Medvetz. 2010. “Think Tanks.” Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. George Ritzer, ed.
Blackwell Reference Online <http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com>.
2008
Thomas Medvetz. 2008. “Beyond Credit and Blame.” Political Sociology: States, Power, and Societies.
ASA Political Sociology Section Newsletter. 14(3): 11-12.
Reprinted as: Thomas Medvetz. 2008. “Hope For Change in Public Debate?” San Diego UnionTribune. December 12. <http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081212/news_lz1e12medvetz.
html>.
Thomas Medvetz. 2008. “Think Tanks as an Emergent Field.” New York: Social Science Research
Council. <http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/A2A2BA10-B135-DE11-AFAC-001CC477EC70/>.
2007
Thomas Medvetz. 2007. Review of Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise, by Andrew
Rich. Journal of Politics 69(1): 271-273.
2004
Gretchen Purser, Ofer Sharone, and Amy Schalet (with Theresa Gowan and Thomas Medvetz). 2004.
Berkeley’s Betrayal: Wages and Working Conditions at Cal.
Excerpted in Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, and Richard P. Appelbaum, eds. 2006.
Introduction to Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 5th edition.
WORK IN PROGRESS
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Thomas Medvetz and Sallaz, Jeffrey J., eds. Forthcoming, 2015. Oxford Handbook of Pierre
Bourdieu. New York: Oxford University Press.
fellowships & Honors
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2013
2012-13
2012
2011-12
2006
2005-06
2004-05
2002-03
1998-99
1998
1994-98
Honorable Mention, ASA Political Sociology Section, Distinguished Contribution
to Scholarship Book Award
Hellman Fellow, University of California, San Diego
Outstanding Professor Award, UCSD Panhellenic Council
Hellman Fellow, University of California, San Diego
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division Conference Grant
National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, Award SES0526199, Principal investigator: Jerome Karabel
Social Science Research Council, Program on Philanthropy and the Nonprofit
Sector Dissertation Fellowship
Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Chapter, Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division Summer Grant
University of California, Berkeley, Dean’s Fellowship
University of California, Berkeley, Departmental fellowship, Department of
Sociology
Phi Beta Kappa, Franklin & Marshall College
Keipner Prize in Sociology, Franklin & Marshall College, Awarded to one student
in senior class
Dana Scholar and Presidential Scholar, Franklin & Marshall College
invited presentations
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“Is Policy Research a Neoliberal Practice?” Department of Sociology Colloquium Series. Northwestern
University. May 15, 2014.
Rethinking the Think Tank: Policy Research as a New Form of Intellectual Engagement.” UCLA
Luskin School of Public Affairs. University of California, Los Angeles. November 22, 2013.
“The Crystallization of the Space of Think Tanks: Technocrats and Activist-Experts in the American
Field of Expertise.”
! Departmental Seminar series, Boston College, March 26, 2013
! Department of Political Science Seminar Series, Johns Hopkins University, September 13, 2012
! Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research (SCANCOR) seminar, Stanford
University, April 16, 2012
“Indistinction: Rethinking the Think Tank.” Department of Sociology Colloquium Series. University
of California, Davis. May 31, 2012.
“What is a Think Tank?: On the New Forms of Intellectual Engagement.” Fourth Annual Graduate
Student Conference. Department of Sociology. University of California, San Diego. April 24, 2009.
“Terra Obscura: ‘Think Tanks’ in the U.S. Field of Power.” Junior Theorists Symposium. Theory
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Section of the American Sociological Association. Harvard University. July 31, 2008.
“Hybrid Intellectuals: Think Tanks and Public Policy Experts in the United States.” L'expertise comme
objet flou: Déplacemnts d'objets et nouvelles perspectives de recherche dans les sciences du politique.
Sciences Po Rennes. March 12-13, 2008.
“From Deprivation to Dependency: Think Tanks in the American Welfare Debate, 1958-1996.”
Contentious Knowledge Theme Project Colloquium Series. Institute for the Social Sciences. Cornell
University. February 19, 2008.
“Hybrid Intellectuals: Think tanks and Public Policy Experts in the United States.” Department of
Science & Technology Studies Colloquium Series. Cornell University. January 28, 2008.
“Think Tanks in America: Four Avenues of Theory and their Connections.” Knowledge in Contention:
Social Movements and the Politics of Science. Institute for the Social Sciences. Cornell University.
October 4-6, 2007.
“The Transformation of U.S. Think Tanks, 1970 to today.” Power in Thought and Practice: 50 Years of
C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite. Columbia University. April 14, 2006.
“How Do Think Tanks Think About Their Own Success and Failure?” Redefining Progress (Oakland,
CA think tank). December 10, 2004.
“Think Tanks, Framing, and the Conservative Movement.” Redefining Progress (Oakland, CA think
tank). October 26, 2004.
“Babies, Guns, and Taxes: Notes on the Structure and Logic of the American Conservative
Movement.” Center for Reproductive Health Research & Policy. University of California, San
Francisco. September 22, 2004.
Conference & Workshop presentations
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Discussant. “What Happened to the Elites?: Old Conundrums and New Data on Who They Are and
What They Are Doing.” Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Philadelphia, PA. August 1-5,
2014.
“Is Policy Research a Neoliberal Practice?” Science-Policy Interface: International Comparisons
Workshop. Balsillie School of International Affairs. University of Waterloo. Waterloo, ON. May 21-23,
2014.
“Think Tanks and Cognitive Autonomy: Towards a Nietzschean View.” Workshop: Economic Reason:
Intellectuals and Think Tanks in the Late Twentieth Century. Department of History and Philosophy
of Science. University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK. June 28, 2013.
“Author Meets Critics: Think Tanks in America, by Thomas Medvetz.” Panelists: Corey Johnson,
Gerard Toal, Jamie Peck, and Kevin Ward. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting.
Los Angeles, CA. April 9-13, 2013.
Discussant. “Experts and Expert Knowledge in Transnational Fields.” International Studies
Association Annual Convention. San Francisco, CA. April 3-6, 2013.
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“Author-Meets-Critics: Thomas Medvetz, Think Tanks in America.” Panelists: S.M. Amadae, Andrew
Jewett, Neil Gross. Lisa Stampnitzky. Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association.
Vancouver, BC. November 1-4, 2012.
“The Crystallization of the Space of Think Tanks: Technocrats and Activist-Experts in the American
Field of Expertise.” Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. Vancouver, BC.
November 1-4, 2012.
Discussant. “Political Culture” session. Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Denver, CO. August 17-20, 2012.
“The Species Between Fields: On the Generative and Referential Aspects of Social Theory.” Occupy
Bourdieu: Un Colloque International Autour de la Pensée de Pierre Bourdieu. Université de Montréal.
March 16, 2012.
“The Crystallization of the Space of Think Tanks: Technocrats and ‘Activist-Experts’ in the American
Field of Expertise.” Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. New York, NY. February 2326, 2012.
“The Contemporary American Conservative Movement.” Annual Meeting of the Social Science
History Association. Boston, MA. November 17-20, 2011.
Discussant. “Rightward Tendencies: Making Sense of Conservatism in the Age of Obama.” Annual
Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Las Vegas, NV. August 20-23, 2011.
“‘Indistinction’: Think Tanks, Murky Organizations, and Power.” 26th EGOS (European Group of
Organizational Studies) Colloquium. Lisbon, Portugal. July 1-3, 2010.
Moderator. Panel discussion with Claude Fischer, Michael Schudson, and Margaret Talbot. 5 th UCSD
Culture Conference. “Meaning and Media: Getting Sociology Across in the Public Sphere.” University
of California, San Diego. May 7, 2010.
“From Deprivation to Dependency: Think Tanks in the American Welfare Debate, 1964-1996.”
Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Boston, MA. August 1-4, 2008.
Moderator and discussant. “Frames and Framing Processes in Diffusion.” Workshop on Contentious
Knowledge and the Diffusion of Social Protest. Institute for the Social Sciences. Cornell University.
November 9-10, 2007.
“The Double Movement: Growing Boundedness and Dependence Among U.S. Think Tanks, 1970 to
Today.” Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. Minneapolis, MN. November 2-5,
2006.
“Hybrid Intellectuals: Toward a Social Praxeology of Think Tank Experts.” Practicing Pierre Bourdieu:
In the Field and Across Disciplines. University of Michigan. September 28-30, 2006.
“Merchants of Expertise: Think Tanks and Intellectuals in the U.S. Field of Power.” Annual Meeting of
the American Sociological Association. Montreal, QC. August 11-14, 2006.
“The Strength of Weekly Ties: Institutional and Ideological Cohesion in the Conservative Movement.”
Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Philadelphia, PA. August 13-16, 2005.
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“Taking Bourdieu into the (Interstitial) Field: Think Tanks, Intellectuals, and Politics in the U.S.”
Putting Pierre Bourdieu to Work 2: A Working Conference. University of California, Berkeley. May
12-13, 2005.
Panelist. “The Virtues of Voluntarism and Nonprofit Organizations: Arguments in American Social
Policy and Politics.” Social Science Research Council Capstone Conference on Philanthropy and the
Nonprofit Sector. Florence, Italy. March 24-26, 2005.
“Merchants of Expertise: The Transformation of American Think Tanks, 1960-2002.” Social Science
Research Council, Indiana University, and Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund Fellows’
Workshop. Los Angeles, CA. November 15-17, 2004.
“The Transformation of American Think Tanks: Three Lessons for Students of Advocacy.” Annual
Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association. San Francisco, CA. April 15-18, 2004.
MEDIA citations (available upon request)
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Print
Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Hill, USA Today, Washington Post
Electronic
Blogotariat, Bookforum, Boston Review, Campaign for the American Reader, Cato@Liberty, Concurring
Opinions, Crooked Timber, Forbes, LSE Review of Books, The Monkey Cage, El Mostrador (Chile), The
New Faculty Majority, On Think Tanks, Public Books, Think Tank Watch, Washington Monthly,
Watchdog.org, Wonkblog
Professional activities & Memberships
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Association memberships
American Sociological Association (ASA), 1999–
International Studies Association (ISA), 2013–
Social Science History Association (SSHA), 2007–
Scholars Strategy Network (SSN), 2012–
ASA section activities
2013-14
2012-13
2012
2012
2010
Member, Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award Selection
Committee, Political Sociology Section
Nominating Committee, Theory Section
Co-organizer with Claire Laurier Decoteau, Theory Section Roundtables
Faculty mentor, Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM) mentoring
committee
Member, Shils-Coleman Award for Best Graduate Student Paper Selection
committee, Theory Section
Conference & workshop organizing
Co-organized with Michal Pagis. Junior Theorists Symposium. Sponsored by the American
Sociological Association Theory section. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. August 19, 2011.
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Conservative Movements Workshop series. Department of Sociology. University of California,
San Diego. 2010-11.
Co-organized with Amy Binder, Mary Blair-Loy, John Evans, and Kwai Ng. 5 th UCSD Culture
Conference. “Meaning and Media: Getting Sociology Across in the Public Sphere.” University of
California, San Diego. May 7, 2010.
Reviewer
American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Canadian Review of Sociology,
Contexts, Critical Policy Studies, Ethnography, Mobilization, Oxford University Press, Poetics,
Policy & Politics, Polity Press, Princeton University Press, Qualitative Sociology, Sage Publications,
Science and Public Policy, Social Forces, Social Studies of Science, Socio-Economic Review,
Sociological Forum, Sociological Theory, The Sociological Quarterly, University of Chicago Press,
University of Pennsylvania Press
Other
Guest blogger, Transparify <http://www.transparify.org>, 2014
“The Double Opacity of Think Tanks.” March 11.
Guest blogger, OrgTheory <http://orgtheory.wordpress.com>, September–November 2012
“An Invitation to Reflexive Blogging.” September 24
“’From Totally Geek to Totally Chic.’” September 27
“Dude, Here’s My Social Theory.” October 4
“Why the Debate on ‘Public Intellectuals” is Faulty (Pt. 1 of 2).” October 12
“Why the Debate on ‘Public Intellectuals’ is Faulty (Pt. 2 of 2).” November 15
“Blogging Fast and Slow: Being an Account of the Author’s Misadventures in Guest-Blogging, with
Some Musings on the Genre’s Pitfalls and Pathological Forms (and Jonah Lehrer)*.” November 28
Working group member, Social Science Research Council (SSRC). “Think Tanks: Knowledge,
Governance and the Public Sphere.” 2008-09
Member, Berkeley Labor Research Group. 2001-04
Editorial collective. Berkeley Journal of Sociology. 1998-99
Department & university service
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Graduate admissions committee, Department of Sociology, UCSD, 2010-14
Organizer, Conservative Movements Workshop, Department of Sociology, UCSD, 2009-10
Committee member, Culture & Society Workshop, Department of Sociology, UCSD, 2008-11
Graduate program curriculum committee, Department of Sociology, UCSD, 2009-10
Teaching & advising
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Graduate seminars
Independent studies (graduate supervisor)
Power & Reflexivity in Pierre Bourdieu
Sociology of Organizations
Sociology of Culture
Sociology of Knowledge
Pierre Bourdieu
Political Culture
Sociology of Culture
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Undergraduate classes
Classical Theory
Field Research Methods
Political Sociology
Social Change
Sociology of Culture
Other teaching & advising activities
Graduate student instructor, University of California, Berkeley, 2000-06 (four semesters)
Teaching assistant, Center for Talented Youth (CTY), Johns Hopkins University, Summer 1998
Faculty mentor, Revelle College “Next Step” Program, UCSD, Winter-Spring 2013
Graduate student committees
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Dissertation
Field exam
Erica Bender (Sociology, ongoing)
Aaron Marquette (Sociology, ongoing)
Jennifer Nations (Sociology, ongoing)
Laura Pecenco (Sociology, ongoing)
David Kadanoff (Sociology, 2014)
Ellis Dillon (Sociology, 2009)
Aaron Marquette (Sociology, 2012)
Non-sociology
David White (Department of Visual Arts, 1st year review, 2010)
Joe Yorty (Department of Visual Arts, 1st year review, 2010)
References
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Available upon request
Last updated:  September 
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