1
Stephan Fuchs
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
1989 PhD, Sociology, University of California at Riverside
1987 M.A., Sociology, University of California at Riverside
1985 Erstes Staatsexamen, History and Political Science, Bremen University,
Germany
PRESENT POSITION
Since 2003 Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
1995–2003 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
1991–1995 Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
1989–1990 Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of New Hampshire
1988–1989 Lecturer, University of California at Riverside and California State University,
San Bernardino
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ACADEMIC HONORS AND AWARDS
2018 Conducted a Three-Day Postgraduate Seminar “On the Theory of the
Observer”, Department of Sociology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul,
Porto Alegre, Brazil, December 10-12, 2018
Invited Lecture, “Hegel’s Ontology of Consciousness”, Department of
Philosophy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil,
December 13, 2018
Invited Lecture, “A Theory of the Observer”, Department of Sociology and
Political Science, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil,
December 14, 2018
2017 Keynote Address, “Observing Professions,” Conference entitled Development
of Professions: Observed with Niklas Luhmanns Systems Theory, Dubrovnik,
Croatia, September 2017
2015 Keynote Address, “Recent Advances in Sociology of Knowledge and Culture,”
Summer Institute entitled Museums at the Crossroads: Local Knowledge,
Global Encounters, Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Indiana University,
May 2015
2013 Alexander von Humboldt Lecture Series, “Observing Observers,” Radboud
University Nijmegen, Netherlands, September 30. Conducted a Graduate
Student Workshop and a Seminar “Science in/and/of Society,” October 1-2.
2008–2010 Fellow, Academic Fellowship Program, Open Society Foundation, Budapest,
Hungary
2009 Invited Participant and Presenter, “Kinds of Observers and Types of
Distinctions,” Conference entitled Constructing Ontology, Hohenheim
University, Stuttgart, Germany, September 22-27
2008 Invited Participant and Presenter, “Behavior of Cultural Networks,”
International Symposium with Harrison White, entitled Relational Sociology:
Transatlantic Impulses for the Social Sciences. Berlin, Germany, September
25-26
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2006 Visiting Professor/Resident Resource Fellow, American University – Central
Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
2006 Invited Lecture, “Networks Across Social Sciences,” Department of Sociology,
University College Dublin, Ireland, November 2006
Invited Lectures, “What Makes a Classic a Classic?,” a Lecture Series, Sablanci
University, Istanbul, Turkey, July 2006
2004–2014 Appointed Expert in Sociology and Sociological Theory, Regional Seminar for
Excellence in Teaching (ReSET) Committee, Open Society Foundation
(formerly Open Society Institute), Hungary, Budapest
Note: Please see the attached letter from the Senior Program Manager,
Oleksandr Shtokvych.
2004 Panel "Author Meets Critics" : On my book Against Essentialism: A Theory of
Culture and Society (2001). Pacific Sociological Association Annual Meeting,
San Francisco, CA
2003–2014 Faculty Resource Scientist, Open Society Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
2003 Nominated for Position of Editor, Sociological Theory (A Journal of the
American Sociological Association)
2003 Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Bielefeld University,
Germany, Summer 2003
2002 Panel "Author Meets Critics" : On my book Against Essentialism: A Theory of
Culture and Society (2001). Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting,
Baltimore, MD
2000 Invited Lecture, “On Selfhood and Identity,” Bielefeld University, Germany,
Summer 2000
Invited Lecture, “Realism and Relativism,” University of Cambridge, United
Kingdom, Summer 2000
Visiting Professor, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden,
Summer 2000
1998 Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany
1996 Visiting Professor, Slovak Academy of the Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak
Republic
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1995 Honorable Mention, Robert Merton Award, for The Professional Quest for
Truth (1992)
1987–1989 Regent’s Fellow, University of California at Riverside
1985 Bremer Studienpreis for Staatsexamen – Thesis
1983 Fellow, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
PUBLICATIONS
Books
In preparation:
1. How the World Worlds: Heidegger and Contemporary Theory
2. A General Theory of the Observer
2001 Against Essentialism: A Theory of Culture and Society, Harvard University
Press
Named one of the Ten Major Theory Books Since 2000 by Randall Collins in
2013. Contemporary Sociology. Vol. 42.
1992 The Professional Quest for Truth, SUNY Press
Articles, Book Chapters, Essays
2019 “Trust and Power” (Review Essay on Niklas Luhmann’s Trust and Power).
Contemporary Sociology. Vol. 48 (2): 188-190.
“On the Coming End of Sociology.” Canadian Review of Sociology. Vol. 56 (1):
138-143. (with Frederic Vandenberghe)
2017 “Observing Facts and Values: A Brief Theory and History.” Canadian Review of
Sociology. Vol. 54 (4): 456-467.
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2014 “How Not To Do (Field) Theory” (Review Essay). Contemporary Sociology.
Vol. 43(3): 312-314.
2013 “Ontological and Constructivist Observing.” Pp. 15-33 in Ontology and
Modernity, edited by R. John, J. Rueckert-John, and E. Esposito. Wiesbaden: VS
Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften.
2010 “Kulturelle Netzwerke. Zu einer Relationalen Soziologie symbolischer
Formen.” Pp. 49-68 in Relationale Soziologie. Zur Kulturellen Wende der
Netzwerkforschung, edited by J. Fuhse and S. Muetzel. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag
fuer Sozialwissenschaften.
2010 “Kinds of Observers and Types of Distinctions.” Pp. 81-96 in Die
Methodologien des Systems, edited by R. John, A. Henkel, and J. Rueckert-John.
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften.
2009 “The Behavior of Cultural Networks.” Soziale Systeme. Vol. 15: 345-366.
2009 “Objektivität” (Review Essay on Objectivity). Soziologische Revue. Vol. 32 (4):
408-414.
2007 “Agency (and Intention).” Pp. 60-62 in Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology,
edited by G. Ritzer.
2006 “On the Relationship between Culture and Power.” , Wissen, Ethik =
Deliberation, knowledge, ethics. Vol. 17(1): 38-39.
2005 “Handlung ist System.” [“Action as System.”] Pp. 51-53 in Schluesselwerke der
Systemtheorie [Key Works in Systems Theory], edited by D. Baecker.
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften.
Reprinted in:
Baecker, Dirk, ed. 2016. Pp. 403-405 in Schluesselwerke der Systemtheorie
[Key Works in Systems Theory]. 2nd ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer
Sozialwissenschaften.
2005 “Wodurch werden Wissenschaften ‘wissenschaftlich’?” Pp. 332-341 in Uwe
Schimank/Rainer Greshoff (eds). Was erklaert die Soziologie?: Methodologien,
Modelle, Perspektiven. Hamburg: Lit. Verlag.
2004 “Some Writing on Thinking and Talking.” Soziale Systeme. Vol. 10: 187-204.
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2004 “Some Thoughts on Fraud and Misconduct.” , Wissen, Ethik =
Deliberation, knowledge, ethics. Vol. 15(4):475-476.
2001 “To Whom it May Concern” A Review Essay. Sociological Theory 20:1.
2001 “Beyond Agency.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 19: 24-40.
2001 “What Makes a Science Scientific?” Pp. 21-35 in Jon Turner (ed). Handbook of
Sociological Theory. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.
2001 “Systems and Networks.” Pp. 130-139 in A. Javier Trevino (ed). Talcott
Parsons Today: His Theory and Legacy in Contemporary Sociology. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield.
2001 “Networks.” Soziale Systeme. Vol. 7: 125-155.
2000 “A Social Theory of Objectivity.”Pp. 155-183 in Ullica Segerstrale (ed). Beyond
the Science Wars: The Missing Discourse about Science and Society. SUNY
Series in Science, Technology, and Society. Albany: SUNY Press.
1999 “Niklas Luhmann.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 17: 117-119.
1999 “Sociology and Social Movements.” Contemporary Sociology. Vol. 28: 271-277.
(with Peggy Plass)
1999 “The Social Conditions of Cumulation.” The American Sociologist. Vol. 30: 21-
40. (with Joe Spear)
1998 “Across the Great (and Small) Divides.” Soziale Systeme. Vol. 4: 5-31. (with
Douglas Marshall)
1997 “A Sociological Theory of Objectivity.” Science Studies. Vol. 11: 4-26.
1996 “The New Wars of Truth: Conflicts over Science Studies as Differential Modes
of Observation.” Social Science Information. Vol. 35: 307-26.
1996 “The Poverty of Postmodernism.” Science Studies. Vol. 9: 58-66.
1996 “The Significance of Network Theory for a Sociological Epistemology.”
Filosofia. Vol. 51: 28-41.
1996 “Fraud and Trust in Science.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Vol. 39:
248-269. (with Saundra Westervelt)
1996 "The Current State of Social Theory: An Introduction." International Journal
of Sociology and Social Policy. Vol. 16: 1-4.
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1995 “The Stratified Order of Gossip. Informal Communication in Organizations
and Science.” Soziale Systeme. Vol. 1: 47-72.
1995 “The Future of Sociology.” Sociological Imagination.
1994 Translation. "What is the Case?" and "What Lies behind It?" The Two
Sociologies and the Theory of Society by Niklas Luhmann. Sociological Theory.
Vol. 12: 126-39.
1994 “A Grid/Group Theory of Prejudice.” Research in Race and Ethnic Relations.
Vol. 7: 37-54. (with Charles Case)
1994 “The Sociology and Paradoxes of Deconstruction.” American Sociological
Review. Vol. 59: 506-510. (with Steven Ward)
1994 “What is Deconstruction?” American Sociological Review. Vol. 59: 481-500.
(with Steven Ward)
1993 “A Sociological Theory of Scientific Change.” Social Forces. Vol. 71: 933-953.
1993 “Against Essentialism in Theories of Rational Action.” International Studies in
the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 7: 37-39.
1993 “Hermeneutics as Organizational Politics.” Current Perspectives in Social
Theory. Vol. 13: 159-184.
1993 “Positivism is the Organizational Myth of Science.” Perspectives on Science.
Vol. 1: 1-23.
1993 “Three Sociological Epistemologies.” Sociological Perspectives. Vol. 36: 23-44.
1992 “Relativism and Reflexivity in the Sociology of Science.” Pp. 151-167 in
George Ritzer (ed). Metatheorizing. Newbury Park: Sage.
1992 “Interaction Systems and Power Networks.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 10: 133-
134.
1991 “Metatheory as Cognitive Style.” Sociological Perspectives. Vol. 34: 287-301.
1991 “From Theory to Critique of Modernity.” Michigan Sociological Review. Vol. 5:
1-18.
1991 “Cultural Structuralism: Robert Wuthnow and Pierre Bourdieu.” Pp. 500-518
in Jon Turner. The Structure of Sociological Theory, 5th ed. Belmont:
Wadsworth. (with Jon Turner)
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1989 “Ist die Soziologie gesellschaftlich irrelevant?” Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie. Vol.
18: 208-219. (with Mathias Wingens)
1989 “Social Determinants of Racial Prejudice.” Sociological Perspectives. Vol. 32:
469-483. (with Charles Case and Andrew Greeley).
1989 “On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology: A Critique of Macrosociological
Reductionism.” Sociological Perspectives. Vol. 32: 169-182.
1989 “Prejudice as Lifeform.” Sociological Inquiry. Vol. 59: 301-317. (with Charles
Case)
1989 “Second Thoughts on Emergent Interaction Orders.” Sociological Theory. Vol.
7: 121-123.
1989 “The Fundamentals of Sociology.” Perspectives. Vol. 6.
1988 “The Constitution of Emergent Interaction Orders. A Comment on Rawls.”
Sociological Theory. Vol. 6: 122-124.
1988 “Two Paradigm Changes in the Development of Sociological Systems Theory.”
Sociological Theory. Vol. 6: 21-25.
1988 Translation. “Tautology and Paradox in the Self-Descriptions of Modern
Society” by Niklas Luhmann. Sociological Theory. Vol. 6: 26-37.
1987 “Toward a Sociology of Truth.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 5: 205-206.
1986 “Sinnverstehen als Lebensform: Ueber die Moeglichkeit hermeneutischer
Objektivitaet” Geschichte und Gesellschaft. Vol. 12: 477-501. (with Mathias
Wingens)
1986 “The Social Organization of Scientific Knowledge.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 4:
126-142.
1986 “What Makes a Science Mature? Patterns of Organizational Control in
Scientific Production.” Sociological Theory. Vol. 4 (7): 143-150. (with Jon
Turner)
1983 “Sinnverstehen und Erklarungsprinzip.” Pp. 71-85 in Erwin Faber and
Imanuel Geiss (eds). Arbeitsbuch zum Geschichtsstudium. Heidelberg: UTB
(Most book reviews and conference papers are not listed except for review essays and
keynote addresses.)
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SERVICE
Department Service
Spring 2019 Presenter, “Hegel’s Relational Ontology,” Spring 2019 Colloquium Series
Since 2017 Member, Graduate Studies Committee
2015–2016 Chair, Colloquium Committee
Presenter, Faculty Salon. Presentation title: “Toward a Theory of the
Observer”
Reviewer, Fifth-Year Faculty Review
2012–2015 Member, Graduate Studies Committee
2011–2012 Member, Graduate Admissions Committee (Spring)
Member, Graduate Studies Committee (Fall)
Member, Comprehensive Exam Committees: Theory; Organizations (2 grad
students)
Spring 2011 Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee
(Fall 2010 On leave)
2009–2010 Chair, Third-Year Review Committee: Allison Pugh
2008–2009 Member, Graduate Studies Committee
Member, Graduate Admissions Committee
Chair, Comprehensive Exam Committee: Theory (Spring 2009)
Chair, Comprehensive Exam Committee: Theory (Spring 2009)
2007–2008 Member, Faculty Search and Recruitment Committee
Spring 2007 Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee
Chair, Comprehensive Exam Committee: Knowledge
(Fall 2006 On leave)
(Spring 2006 On leave)
During 2006, I was on sabbatical, teaching at the American University of Central Asia in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. My appointment there was as a fellow of the Academic Fellowship
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Program (AFP) of the Open Society Foundation. My duties as AFP fellow included teaching
four courses during the year, assisting in curriculum development and teaching design,
assisting the Sociology department chair in building a department with international
visibility, student mentoring (especially those going to graduate schools in the US), and
faculty advising (such as conference preparation, grant proposal design, and scholarly
publishing). At the college level, I gave three university-wide lectures on sociology of
knowledge during the year.
2004–2005 Director of Undergraduate Studies
Fall 2003 Director of Undergraduate Studies
Co-Organizer, Sociology Majors Fair
(Spring 2003 On leave)
2001–2002 Member, Graduate Admissions Committee
Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee
2000–2001 Member, Faculty Search and Recruitment Committee
Director, Colloquium Series
1999 Member, Graduate Admissions Committee
Author, Vision and Mission Statement of the Sociology Department
(Fall 1999 On leave)
I also served as the Director of Graduate Studies during my years as an assistant professor,
between 1991 and 1995, and carried out many other services in the department in years
prior to 1999, similar to the above.
University Service
2017–2019 Faculty Advisor, First-Year Students, College of Arts and Sciences
2011–2012 Faculty Advisor, First-Year Students, College of Arts and Sciences
2009–2010 Faculty Advisor, First-Year Students, College of Arts and Sciences
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2007–2009 Member, Advisory Board, Center for German Studies, University of
Virginia
2004–2005 Faculty Advisor, First-Year Students, College of Arts and Sciences
1999 Member, Evaluation Committee for the Technology, Culture, and
Communication course in the School of Engineering and Applied
Science
1998 Member, Page-Barbour Lectures Committee for the Conference of
Nobel Peace Laureates
1996 Co-Organizer, Social Studies of Science Conference at UVa (with
Science, Technology, and Society Department of the School of
Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia
1995 Co-Organizer, University-Wide Workshop on Fraud and Misconduct in
Science (with Paul Gross)
1995 Assistant for the Theory Seminar Program initiated by Richard Rorty,
University of Virginia
1993 Assistant for the Society and Communication Seminars by Niklas
Luhmann organized by the Commonwealth Center for Literary and
Cultural Change, University of Virginia
Professional National & International Service
2015 External Reviewer, Sociological Theory position recruitment, Faculty
of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2014 Member, Advisory Committee, Edition of the Niklas Luhmann’s
Nachlass
Summer 2011 Presenter and Project Reviewer at the Project Directors Meeting,
Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET), Open Society
Foundation, Visegrad, Hungary.
Keynote Address, “Cultural Networks”
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2010 Non-Resident Advisor, Academic Fellowship Program (Open Society
Foundation), Departments of Sociology and Philosophy, Novosibirsk
State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
Summer 2008 Presenter and Project Reviewer at the Project Directors Meeting,
ReSET, Cairo, Egypt.
Keynote Address, “Network Theory”
2007–2014 Faculty Advisor, Academic Fellowship Program, Open Society
Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
Summer 2006 Presenter and Project Reviewer at the Project Directors Meeting,
ReSET, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Keynote Address, “Toward a Sociological Philosophy”
2004–2014 Member, Advisory Committee of ReSET/ Higher Education Support
Program (HESP), Open Society Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
2004–2013 Site Visits and Project Evaluations of Summer Schools funded by
HESP, Foundation, Budapest, Hungary.
Summer 2003 Organizer and Participant, Summer University, Central Asian Resource
Center/ Open Society Foundation, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2001–2003 Member, Editorial Board, Sociological Theory (the leading U.S. journal
in sociological theory)
Since 1999 Member, Editorial Board, Soziale Systeme – Zeitschrift fuer
soziologische Theorie (Journal for Sociological Theory), Luzern,
Switzerland
Since 1991 Manuscript Reviewer for American Journal of Sociology, American
Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, Social Forces, Soziale Systeme,
and other leading journals of sociology
Since 1991 Book Manuscript Reviewer for Academic Presses, including:
Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, MIT Press, Oxford
University Press, Polity, Rowman & Littlefield, Stanford University
Press
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Teaching Experience
I have taught a regular annual four-course teaching load at both undergraduate and
graduate levels since 1989, except for sabbatical leaves.
Courses Taught:
Introduction to Sociology Introduction to Social Theory Classical Sociological Theory Contemporary Sociological Theory European Social Theory Cultural Systems
Sociology of Organizations Sociology of Science Sociology of Knowledge Sociology of Mind Philosophical Foundations of Social Theory Sociological Phenomenology
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Attachment
Open Society Institute
Higher Education Support Program
Október 6. Utca 12, H-1051, Budapest, Hungary · Tel: (36 1) 327 3850 · Fax: (36 1) 411 4401 ·
E-mail: [email protected]
Date: 20 October 2009
To: Professor Krishan Kumar, Chair, Department of Sociology
Professor Karen Parshall, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
University of Virginia
CC: Professor Stephan Fuchs
Re: Professor Stephan Fuchs’s involvement with the programs of the Open Society Institute
Dear Professor Kumar, Professor Parshall:
It is my honor and pleasure to write to you on behalf of Professor Stephan Fuchs at Your
Department of Sociology. He asked us that we provide you with the statement on the nature of
his on-going affiliation and contribution to the programs of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and
the International Higher Education Support Program (HESP).
Please allow me to introduce our program to you. HESP promotes the advancement of higher
education in the humanities and social sciences throughout the region of Eastern and South
Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia. We are
part of the extensive Soros Foundations network spanning over sixty countries worldwide and
programs engaged in development, advocacy and grant-making to strengthen civil society,
economic and legal reform, education at all levels, human rights, public administration, media
and communications, public health, and arts and culture. HESP provides assistance, both
financial and technical, to a network of institutions, ranging from undergraduate universities to
doctoral programs and advanced studies centers, as well as to individual faculty and scholars.
Our support focuses on sustainable curriculum and faculty development; advancement of
scholarly teaching that encourages and stimulates critical thinking and open access to and active
use of broad range of academic resources; international academic collaboration and participation
of the scholars and university teachers from the region in the most current academic debate;
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access to higher education by members of marginalized communities; development of
transparent policies and procedures of academic evaluation, peer review, and institutional
management; and student engagement in educational governance. We offer a broad range of
development and support programs for students, university faculty and administration. Most of
HESP academic activities take place in the region of HESP’s operation – Eastern, South-Eastern
Europe and Eurasia. I invite you to review our programs in further detail at
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/hesp. All our operational and grant-making programs are
developed and administered in close collaboration and with on-going input from an international
body of academics and scholars, recognized as leading experts in their fields, master teachers and
experts in educational administration. They bring broadly international thinking, most current
scholarly discourse, effective approaches to teaching and high standards of academic quality and
ethics to our programs and our academic partners in the region.
Professor Fuchs has been contributing to HESP’s programs since 2003, when, upon the
recommendation from Professor Randall Collins, he was invited to lead a core resource faculty
team for a three-year project on development of contemporary teaching in Sociology in the
universities of Central Asia. This three-year long project involved thirty young academics
teaching a range of subjects in Sociology at approximately fifteen universities throughout the
five Central Asian states and a group of resource faculty from the leading institution of higher
education in North America, Western Europe and the NIS and engaged in learning and critical
revision of theories, methods and practices of scholarly work and teaching in Sociology and on
development of curricula in Social Theory in Central Asian universities. Between 2003 and
2006, Professor Fuchs worked closely with the Academic Director of this project to advise on the
overall planning and implementation of the academic program of the project, taught at three
major summer schools based in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and led a number of seminars at
various departments of Sociology in the region, advised and supervised the individual project
participants on their research and curriculum development projects.
Through this project Professor Fuchs developed further engagements with the academics and
institutions in Central Asia. For two semesters in 2006 he acted as a resident academic advisor
(Resource Fellow) to the Department of Sociology at the American University – Central Asia in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. This University has been established and is operating with considerable
academic and financial support of HESP. Professor Fuchs was there as part of the Academic
Fellowship Program (AFP) which assists the selected departments in HESP’s network of
universities in the Eastern Europe and Eurasia in developing innovative curricula and introducing
new subject areas based on the most current approaches in scholarship and teaching, and
formulating and advancing progressive research profiles of the departments. In addition to
fulfilling a full-time teaching load, Professor Fuchs assisted AUCA in redesigning the
undergraduate Sociology curriculum and increasing the coverage of theoretical subjects. He also
worked with the university administration on issues of program evaluation and establishing
public lecture series to bring the most current ideas from scholarly work to inspire innovative
teaching and academic debate among the faculty and students of the AUCA social sciences
programs. Since 2006 till now he has been a regular contributor to the program of training in
research design and lecture and seminar courses in theory review in the social sciences and
humanities through our Central Asia Research and Training Initiative (CARTI), which provides
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academic supervision and financial support to approximately thirty PhD students and post-
Doctoral researchers every year. Furthermore, in 2007-08
The successful experience of collaboration on these various projects started a much broader
long-term association between Professor Fuchs and OSI. Currently, Professor Fuchs is a member
of the Advisory Committee of the Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching (ReSET).
The role of the Committee member implies Professor Fuchs’s participation in defining the
program’s focus and priorities for each round of grants, academic review and selection of the
projects applying for HESP funding, working closely with the project directors to design
cohesive academic programs and invite the most relevant international faculty contributors, on-
going monitoring, evaluation and advising to the project on all academic matters of the project
implementation. Currently, Professor Fuchs is our primary advisor to the following ReSET
projects:
Rediscovering Social Inequality and Exclusion After the Collapse of the State
Socialism (base institution: Russian State Social University, Academic Director:
Professor Ken Roberts, University of Liverpool)
Modernity and the Futures of Capitalism in Eurasia (base institution: St. Petersburg
State University, Academic Director: Professor Alberto Martinelli, University of
Milan)
Comparative Study of Everyday Life (base institution: St .Petersburg State University,
Academic Director: Professor Piotr Sztompka, Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
Living Outside the Law: Institutional Approaches toward Studying the Extralegal
Sector in Comparative Perspective (base institution: National University of Mongolia,
Academic Director: Professor Anton Oleynik, University of Newfoundland)
These on-going projects are due to continue in 2010-11 academic year.
The ReSET Advisory Committee, which consists of six internationally prominent scholars,
meets, on average, three times a year to advise HESP on the academic progress of the projects
funded by ReSET and assist in making decisions on funding for the new and on-going projects.
The Committee also leads the annual meetings of the Project Directors in the discussions in the
projects’ subject areas on matters of bringing the most current knowledge and academic
resources into the project work and maintaining the focus of the program on the state of the art in
scholarship and teaching in the subjects whose development is supported by ReSET. All ReSET
Committee members make regular site visits to the projects’ seminar sessions, which are mainly
held during the summer months. The program also involves the Committee experts in the
teaching site visits, which take them to the classrooms of the program’s participants and invite to
provide feedback on the overall approach, content, teaching methods and other aspects of course
organization and delivery. Thus, the Committee provides comprehensive guidance and
leadership in all academic aspects of the program.
Following the experience of collaboration with the American University – Central Asia,
Professor Fuchs is now involved, as a non-resident Resource Fellow, with the department of
Sociology at Novosibirsk State University in Russia. He contributes to the departmental
17
development by providing evaluation, feedback and advice on the curriculum revision,
development of the courses that have been absent from the curriculum and advise on research
and teaching projects of several faculty members. AFP Resource Fellows are expected to make
site visits to the departments they advise during the academic year and take a lead in two annual
Discipline Group Meetings, where all AFP Fellows from the entire region gather to discuss the
issues of their research and teaching practice, course development and departmental reform.
On 22-24 October, Professor Fuchs will be attending such AFP Discipline Group Meeting in
Odessa, Ukraine. The meeting will involve approximately sixty university teachers of Sociology,
Anthropology, History, Gender Studies and Psychology from the region and their colleagues
from Western universities in presentations of their research and teaching projects and discussion
of the advancement of the curricula in these subjects. Professor Fuchs will be offering two
plenary presentations (Where does Knowledge Come From? and Towards a Sociology of
Postmodernism) and leading a discussion of papers on interdisciplinary and comparative
approaches in research and teaching and on social research in media, as well as providing peer
feedback on a number of individual projects of our fellows from the region.
Active and consistent input by the leading international scholars in our programs is essential to
uphold our commitment to advance critical academic debate and help promote the highest
standards of academic work in the social sciences and humanities in our target region. It is
equally essential that the advisors of our programs have a regular opportunity to meet personally
with the recipients of our support, develop more intimate knowledge of the institutions and the
region where we work and engage in collaborative academic work with the colleagues in the
region. We are pleased to be able to continue to benefit from the commitment and outstanding
contribution of scholars like Professor Fuchs. He is one of our long-standing supporters and
active contributors; his involvement is highly valued, and we will greatly appreciate any
assistance and support that you can offer him to enable his continued contribution to the cause of
development of university education, scholarly work and teaching in social sciences in the post-
Communist societies.
I would be pleased to provide you with any further information on our programs and Professor
Stephan Fuchs’s contribution to them and greatly appreciate your support to his involvement and
attendance at various academic meetings organized as part of HESP and OSI activities.
Sincerely,
Oleksandr Shtokvych
Senior Program Manager
Higher Education Support Program
Open Society Institute
Oktober 6. u. 12, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Tel.: 36.1.235.6153
Fax: 36.1.411.4401
Email: [email protected]
www.soros.org/initiatives/hesp
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