Sociology’s Lindsay to discuss ‘Networks as Channels of Power’ at Sept. 22 Scientia

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

How do social and professional networks shape the flow of influence and power in American society? Rice sociologist Michael Lindsay will explore the answer to this question Sept. 22 with “Networks as Channels of Power,” the first lecture in the 2009-10 Scientia lecture series.

	MICHAEL LINDSAY

The talk will be at 4 p.m. in McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall; a wine-and-cheese reception will be held after the lecture.

Drawing on research he recently completed for the White House Fellows Project, Lindsay will explore the ways that networks benefit and attract elite leaders, create hubs of activity and constitute important elements in the “circuit” of elite power in American society today. He will discuss his interviews with national leaders and reveal some of the most important findings from “Surveying America’s Leadership: A Study of White House Fellows,” the unprecedented survey he conducted with White House Fellows, which will be released Oct. 2.

Lindsay is an assistant professor of sociology, associate director of Rice’s Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life and a Rice Scholar at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. He specializes in issues surrounding leadership, religion and culture and is the author of several books, scholarly articles and research reports.

The theme of this year’s Scientia lecture series is networks; lectures will consider not only the ways in which networks are changing people’s lives, but also how insights into the operation and architecture of networks may generate solutions to a wide variety of problems.

Scientia is an institute of Rice University faculty founded in 1981 by the mathematician and historian of science Salomon Bochner. Scientia provides an opportunity for scholarly discussion across disciplinary boundaries; its members and fellows come from a wide range of academic disciplines.

For more information, visit http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~scientia/.