Timothy Dowd Email & Phone Number

I am fascinated with the processes by which classifications and practices become widely accepted. Thus, I have studied such things as (a) aesthetic classifications (e.g., the rise of the R&B genre in the early to mid 1900s; the evolving orchestral canon from the early 1800s to the present; the designation of "all time greats" in music and the arts); (b) business strategies (e.g., decentralized production of multinational record companies; post-antitrust merger strategies of railroad companies; the wholescale shift to online music); and (c) careers in creative industries (e.g., how musicians and artists make a living in settings where sustained employment is scarce and where racial and gender boundaries are commonplace).My studies have taught me to emphasize the importance of historical context, to acknowledge how inequality gets built into that context (especially along racial and gendered lines), and to recognize the benefits of bringing multiple theories into dialogue.While much of my current research addresses music and creative careers, my interests are much broader than that. As editor of Poetics, for example, I enjoyed featuring cultural sociology that runs the gamut in terms of methodologies, theories, and traditions. As a professor, I often remind my students that sociology is defined by a diversity of topics and approaches.

Listed skills include Research, Higher Education, Qualitative Research, Editorial, and 9 others.