Andrew Thompson

Sociology and Anthropology Department

Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., York University (Toronto)
Fields: Critical Theory, Culture, Race and Racism, Social Movements, Violence

Contact Information

Email: athompson@holycross.edu
Office: Beaven 223 Phone: TBA

Biography

Andrew Thompson received his PhD in Sociology from York University (Toronto) and is currently a Visiting Professor of Sociology at Holy Cross. Working in the tradition of critical theory, his research examines how social movements become sites of racial and cultural contestation while his publications and pedagogy foreground his commitment to revolutionary social change.

Thompson is the author of two books on racial formation, social movements, and violence, and a contributing editor to three additional volumes on activist research methods, the erotic dimensions of global revolt, and the contested vocabulary of late-capitalist struggle. His work has appeared in various journals including Social Movement Studies, Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest, and Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association. Alongside these scholarly contributions, he has also been featured in popular venues like Boston Review and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Thompson’s current research explores the ongoing decline of the social movement as the dominant mode of popular contention in the United States. Between the current dissolution of democratic norms and the corresponding resurgence of street-level violence, he has hypothesized that we are now in an important period of historical transition. During this moment, the historical and tactical lessons of Black freedom struggles become increasingly salient since participants in these struggles have never been able to presuppose that the state would recognize them as legitimate claimants.