Shai M. Dromi
Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology at Harvard University
Welcome! I study how moral beliefs and values shape public life, knowledge, and our definitions of harm, justice, and the social good. My work explores the intersections of academic knowledge, social movements, and humanitarian organizations, with a focus on understanding whose experiences are recognized, whose claims are contested, and how collective ideals are negotiated.
My current research centers on three core themes:
Contested claims and suffering in public life: Examining how reports of harm are made credible or contestable in university settings and beyond, and how public justifications for claims of injustice reflect broader social frameworks of moral logic.
Sociology of morality and pluralism: Mapping how sociologists approach questions of fairness, dignity, and justice, and how diverse methods and theories contribute to a nuanced understanding of moral life.
Debates over the canon of sociology: Investigating how struggles over the canon reflect competing visions of the discipline’s moral commitments and intellectual boundaries, and how new voices and values reshape what is taught and remembered.
I am Associate Senior Lecturer at Harvard, Treasurer of the Social Science History Association, and incoming Chair of the ASA Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. My recent books include Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Research (University of Chicago Press, 2023, with Samuel D. Stabler) and Above the Fray: The Red Cross and the Making of the Humanitarian NGO Sector (University of Chicago Press, 2020). I am also co-editor of the Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, vol. 2 (Springer, 2023, with Steven Hitlin and Aliza Luft). See my research page for more details.
I teach courses on nonprofit organizations, humanitarian aid, cultural sociology, sociology of religion, sociological theory, and related topics. For more details, please see my teaching page.
Contact me at shai.dromi@g.harvard.edu, and follow me at @dromishai.bsky.social‬ .
Photo credit: Mira Whiting Photography.
