Lyn Spillman, associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, was inaugurated as chair of the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Section on Culture at the group’s annual meeting this month.
Spillman specializes in cultural sociology, social theory and economic, political and comparative historical sociology. She is the author of “Nation and Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia,” editor of “Cultural Sociology,” and has authored numerous articles and chapters on cultural theory, theories of nationalism, collective memory and causal reasoning. Her current research, supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship and an ASA/NSF Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline Award, investigates the ways trade associations invest economic action with meaning.
A graduate of the Australian National University, Spillman earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.
Founded in 1905, the ASA is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good. The association’s second-largest section with membership of more than 1,100, the Section on the Sociology of Culture encourages the organized interchange of ideas and research and considers material products, ideas and symbolic means and their relation to social behavior.
Contact: Lyn Spillman, 574-631-8067, spillman.1@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on August 23, 2007.