Donald N. Levine
Professor
B.A. University of Chicago, 1950
M.A. University of Chicago, 1954
Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1957
Office: Gates-Blake 509
Phone: 773-702-7917
Email: dlok@uchicago.edu
Donald N. Levine is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Sociology.
Levine's current research and teaching interests focus on general social theory, modernization theory, Ethiopian studies, conflict theory and aikido, and the sociology of morality.
Levine's current research projects includethe logics and interpersonal dynamics of dialogue, modernization in Ethiopia, and the somatics of social interaction.
Journals
Dr. Levine serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Classical Sociology, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Theory, Culture and Society, and the Aiki Thought papers.
Centers
Committee on African StudiesResearch Interests
Culture, Social Theory, and Transnational Processes.
Selected Publications
The View of Life, by Georg Simmel. Translation of LEBENSANSCHAUUNG by John Andrews and Donald Levine, With an introduction by Donald Levine and Daniel Silver. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
"Aksum as a 'Seedbed' Society," Proceedings of the Second International Littmann Conference, Aksum, ed. Steffen Wenig and Wolbert Smidt. In Meroitica, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz-Verlag, 2010.
"Simmel's Shifting Formulations Regarding the Antinomies of Modern Culture," Simmel Studies 18, No. 2: 239-63, 2008.
"Soziologie und Lebensanschauung: Zwei Wege der 'Kant-Goethe-Synthese' bei Georg Simmel," Simmel Studies 17, No. 2 : 239-64, 2007.
"Ethiopia, Japan, and Jamaica: A Century of Globally Linked Modernizations." International Journal of Ethiopian Studies Vol. 3, No. 1, 18-28, 2007.
"Ethiopia's Missed Opportunities–1960, 1962, 1974, 1991, 1998, 2005–and Now: II." 2007.
“The Aiki Path to Therapeutic and Creative Intersubjectivity.” Lecture at conference on “Living Aikido: Art of Movement, Art of Life,” Aiki Institut, Schweinfurt, Germany, May 18, 2007.
Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
"Merton's Ambivalence towards Autonomous Theory-and Ours." Canadian Journal of Sociology 31(2), 2006.
"Japan, Ethiopia, and Jamaica: A Century of Globally Linked Modernizations." International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 2(1), 2006.
"Somatic Elements in Social Conflict." In Embodying Sociology: Retrospect, Progress and Prospects, ed. Chris Shilling. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
"Reconfiguring the Ethiopian Nation in a Global Era," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 2005.
"Modernization and its endless discontents." After Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the 21st Century, Russell Sage, 2005.
"The Continuing Challenge of Weber's Theory of Rational Action, Economy and Society at 2000, Stanford University Press, 2005.
The Dialogical Turn. Essays in Honors of Donald N. Levine, ed. C. Camic and Hans Joas. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
"Dialogues of the Nations: Revisiting Visions and Its Critics, The Sociological Quarterly, 2001.
Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society, revised edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Amharic translation: Tiliqua Etyopya. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press, 2001.
"Ethiopia and Japan in Comparative Civilizational Perspective." Passages: Journal of Transnational and Transcultural Studies, Spring 2001.
"On the Critique of 'Utilitarian' Theories of Action: Newly Identified Convergences Among Simmel, Weber, and Parsons, Theory, Culture and Society, 2000.
"Theory and Practice Revisited: Reflections on the Philosophies of Richard McKeon and Talcott Parsons," in Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy, Vanderbilt University Press, 2000.
"The Idea of the University, Take One: On the Genius of This Place." Paper presented at the Idea of the University Colloquium, University of Chicago, November, 2000.
