Sociology and Anthropology

SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY FACULTY

Tom Hall

T Hall Ph.D. (University of Washington)

Edward Myers Dolan Professor of Anthropology
University Professor
106 Asbury Hall
Phone: (765) 658-4519
E-mail: thall@depauw.edu
Vita
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Thomas D. [Tom] Hall earned a masters in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1971. He taught for two years at Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Arizona on the Navajo Nation. After a variety of activities he attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he completed his Ph.D. in 1981. His interests are long-term social change, race and ethnicity, indigenous peoples, frontiers, globalization, and world-systems analysis. From 1989 to 2007 he held the Lester M. Jones chair in Sociology. From 1997-1999 he served as Coordinator of Conflict Studies. In 2007 (until 2009) he was appointed Edward Myers Dolan Chair in Anthropology. He served as Chair of the department in 2003-04 and in 2007-08.
In 1996 he spent his sabbatical in Thailand and traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. In 1997 he attended the East-West Center institute on Southeast Asian history and culture, then in 1998 spent five weeks traveling with a group from the East-West Center on a field study project. He visited Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Angkor Wat in Campuchea (Cambodia), Indonesia, and Bali.
In 1999-2000 he was visiting distinguished professor at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, where he held the A. Lindsay O'Connor Chair in American Institutions. From 2004-2008 he was University Professor at DePauw. He again held the O'Connor Chair in 2004-2005. From 2005-2008 he served as Chair-elect, Chair, and past-chair or the Political Economy of the World-System, a section of the American Sociological Association. In fall 2007 he became book review editor for Journal of World-Systems Research.
Tom is an active scholar with several books. Currently he is completing with coauthor James V. Fenelon James V. Fenelon, Indigenous Peoples and Globalization: Resistance and Revitalization, to be published by Paradigm Press. He has written many articles about indigenous peoples, world-systems analysis, and several papers on pedagogy. Some recent papers are:

Kardulias, P. Nick and Thomas D. Hall. in press. “Archaeology and World-Systems Analysis.” World Archaeology, forthcoming.
Fenelon, James V. and Thomas D. Hall. 2008. “Revitalization and Indigenous Resistance to Globalization and Neo-liberalism.” American Behavioral Scientist 51:12(Aug):1867-1901.
Hall, Thomas D. and James V. Fenelon. 2008. “Indigenous Movements and Globalization: What is Different? What is the Same?” Globalizations 5:1(March):1-11.
Turchin, Peter, Jonathan M. Adams, and Thomas D. 2006. “East-West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States.” Journal of World-Systems Research.12:2(December):218-229 [available on line at: http://jwsr.ucr.edu/index.php] [This is an empirical test which supports Jared Diamond’s claim that east-west diffusion is more common than north-south diffusion].

During summer of 2007 he traveled to Oxford England where he participated in the Oxford Roundtable on Global Migration: Benefits and Detriments. There he presented paper with P. Nick Kardulias, “A World Systems View of Human Migration Past and Present: Providing a General Model for Understanding the Movement of People.” He also manage to hoist a pint in the Eagle & the Child pub where J.R.R. Tolkein and C. S. Lewis used to hang out, and got to see the places where Harry Potter’s library and infirmary were filmed – which his niece Lexie thinks was cool beyond belief! He also visited Stonehenge and Bath, and ancient Roman center, which HE thought was cool beyond belief!
His current teaching and research interests focus on the changing roles of indigenous peoples in the modern world, the comparative study of frontiers, and long-term (that is, thousands of years) social, economic, political, and cultural change.

Fall 2009 - Spring 2010 on leave

Spring 2009

Fall 2008

Spring 2008