NCSA 2023 Presidential Address All Together Now: Sociology as a Liberal Art and a Liberating Practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the curricula of colleges and universities in North America, the discipline of sociology is a relative newcomer. During scarcely more than a century since the founding of the first American degree programs in sociology, little agreement has emerged over what sociology actually is or does. Rather than regard this dizzying diversity as a source of confusion and consternation, though, might we ponder what would happen to us and our efforts if, instead, we were to view the many forms and aims of contemporary sociology as an irreplaceable advantage, and the practical pluralism that surrounds us in our work as a font of riches, embarrassing or not? Would not multiple visions thus be engaged at once? Could we not at last proceed, as the Beatles urged us, “all together now”?