About Me

I’m a Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, where I study Sociological Theory, Youth Suicide and Mental Health, Emotions, Social Psychology, and Culture. My work has been published in journals like the American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, Society and Mental Health, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior. My research has won several national awards recognizing its contribution to social science and public health and, recently (2024), I received the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting from the ASA’s section on Theory. I am the editor of Springer’s Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory and co-editor of the Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory. Currently, I serve as co-editor of Contexts magazine.

Generally speaking, my work centers on theorizing across social, psychological, and neurobiological levels to better understand how and why we feel, think, and act in certain ways and, in turn, how groups of people can reshape their local social world. Practically speaking, my work on suicide focuses on the social roots of youth suicide and suicide clusters with the express aim of improving the lives and well-being of kids and adults who are trying to keep them safe.