I am an Associate Professor of sociology at The Ohio State University. My research broadly explores the relationship between theory, method, and knowledge production in the social sciences. I am especially interested in questions about basic theoretical assumptions and methodological practices that social scientists rely on, and how interrogating those assumptions and practices can help us to improve theory and research. My work in this area draws heavily on insights and theories from cultural sociology.
Within this broad theme, my work spans several areas. In one vein, I explore questions surrounding legitimacy, such as how social scientists define it, how it matters, and how it can be measured. I have also explored issues related to political violence, armed conflict, and social movements, and in that context I have focused empirically on the Middle East generally, and Turkey in particular. I have published methodological work on regression, social network analysis, configurational comparative analysis, and ethnography, among others.
My research has received awards from the American Sociological Association sections on Comparative and Historical Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Mathematical Sociology, Methodology, Sociology of Religion, and Peace, War, and Social Conflict, as well as the Council of European Studies Radicalism and Violence Network. I have published in journals including American Sociological Review, Journal of Politics, Social Forces, Social Networks, Social Problems, and Sociological Methods & Research. My book Regression Inside Out (co-authored with David Melamed and Ronald Breiger), was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.
Some of my current projects include:
A book titled Legitimacy: A Relational Perspective (under contract with Columbia University Press), which advances a relational approach to theorizing and studying legitimacy in the social sciences.
Research using interviews with ethnographers who conducted long-term fieldwork in Turkey to explore 1) informal dynamics of ethnographic methods, and 2) how political changes in the 21st century have shaped knowledge production in and about contemporary Turkey.
I teach courses including Introduction to Sociology (undergraduate), Social Foundations of Class, Gender & Race (undergraduate), Sociological Theory (graduate), Political Sociology (graduate), Social Movements (graduate), and Research Methods (graduate). In the past I have taught classes on culture, contentious politics, and social networks. Syllabi for my recently taught courses are available here.
Links to full text versions of all of my articles can be found under Publications, and my CV is available here.
I pronounce my last name "Scone" (rhymes with phone).