Supported by a major grant from the John Templeton Foundation, ECG's Signature Course Fellowships fund faculty who have a vision for translating research on human flourishing into large-scale, public-facing, pedagogically innovative courses. This Tuesday, join us for a masterclass featuring two current fellows: Notre Dame sociology faculty Erin and Terry McDonnell, whose Signature Course focuses on "The Good Society." Refreshments are included.
Erin Metz McDonnell is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Her research cuts across organizational, political, cultural, and economic sociology. Her work focuses on the reciprocal relationship between culture and social organization, from consumer groups to state administrative capacity. Her award-winning work has been published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Comparative Political Studies. Her book project Patchwork Leviathan analyzes the emergence and functioning of niches of organizational excellence within otherwise weak state administrations, combining qualitative research on four niches within the contemporary Ghanaian state with comparative historical analyses of state organizations in China, Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria.
Terry McDonnell studies the role of objects, symbols, and media in everyday life. His research explains why some cultural objects have the power to shape belief and behavior, while others fail to have their intended effect. To do this, he traces the production, circulation, and reception of objects over time. People put objects to work intending them to do specific tasks. Not all objects work equally well, so why do some objects hold sway over us, while others fail to motivate? He answers this question by theorizing cultural power and failure through mechanisms of resonance, materiality, entropy, and cultural form. His current research examines what he calls "empathy objects." Empathy objects are designed to simulate the embodied experience of another person’s condition or situation. Does empathy need people? Or can objects, and the lived experiences they permit, stand in for people? McDonnell is interested in how organizations design and mobilize these objects to persuade people to change their belief and behavior.