Sociologist Jack Goldstone received his peers’ highest commendation last week when the UC Davis Academic Senate named him the Faculty Research Lecturer for 2003.
The 61st annual presentation of the honor, which recognizes exceptional research contributions of a campus faculty member, was made Feb. 19 during the Senate’s winter meeting. Traditionally, the recipient presents at a future date a campus lecture related to his or her research
"Jack Goldstone is a thoughtful and highly productive scholar," said political science professor Donald Rothchild in introducing Goldstone. "This is the highest honor for a faculty member on campus."
A member of UC Davis’ faculty since 1989, Goldstone is an expert on revolutions and social movements, demography and international security, and social theory, especially in Asia and developing countries. The editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions, he has written eight books, including the Revolutions of the Late Twentieth Century (1991) and more than 70 articles and book chapters. A forthcoming book is titled, The Happy Chance: The Rise of the West in Global Context, 1500-1850 (Harvard University Press).
"There are many scholars whose accomplishments I find fascinating and which far exceed my own," Goldstone said upon receiving the award.
Goldstone has recently been called upon by the national media for his expertise regarding the Afghan revolution, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and rebuilding Iraq after a possible U.S.-led war. He has advised the FBI in its search for the Unabomber and has helped the U.S. Department of State in international affairs.
Goldstone earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. From 1981 to 1984, he taught sociology and political science at Northwestern University. At UC Davis, he served as the director of the Center for Comparative Research in History, Society and Culture from 1989 to 1991.
A San Francisco native, Goldstone met his wife, Gina, while on vacation in Hawaii in 1991. "It always seemed like a magical place to meet." Now they have two children, Alexander, 10, and Simone, 6.
"Not much time for hobbies these days, although I like to ski, to run and play classical guitar. My main side occupation is raising two wonderful but rambunctious children," said Goldstone.
Goldstone and his family were living in the Northridge area during the 1994 earthquake. They lost their home and everything they owned. As if that weren’t bad enough, over the next seven years, the Goldstones had at least one immediate family member hospitalized for accident or injury every year.
"But our seven years of bad luck seems over," said Goldstone, "We got through 2002 with no major medical problems. My work kept me going through ups and downs, and I was grateful to have my family’s support throughout these ordeals."
This year, Goldstone is a Visiting Scholar at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego. Funded through a MacArthur Research and Writing Grant, he is studying the common causes of revolutionary and ethnic wars.
The Faculty Research Lecturer award was established in 1941 by the Davis Sigma Chi club and is given annually to a faculty member whose research contributions have greatly enhanced human knowledge and brought widespread honor and recognition to themselves and the university. In 1951, the UC Davis Academic Senate, composed of ladder-rank faculty members, assumed responsibility for the award.
The most recent recipients of the award have been Tilahun Yilma, a veterinary virologist who genetically engineered a vaccine for a deadly cattle disease and is now working to develop an AIDS vaccine, entomologist Bruce Hammock, poet Gary Snyder, plant pathologist George Bruening, and Spanish literature scholar Samuel Armistead.