Erin Leahey

Erin Leahey is Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and an elected member of the Sociological Research Association. During the 2023-24 academic year, Professor Leahey is spending a sabbatical year at the Center for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University.  She is known largely for her work on science, scientific careers, and inequality therein. Contributions to the new interdisciplinary field Science of Science include studies of specialization, interdisciplinarity, collaborative teams, disruption, and (coming soon) humility in inquiry. Professor Leahey has published three dozen peer-reviewed articles, including seven in our discipline’s top three journals (ASR, AJS, and Social Forces), two in the Annual Review of Sociology, and a highly publicized article in Nature about disruption in science. These papers have been cited over 4300 times.  Erin has secured over $4 million in external research funding and has been awarded fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Fulbright Scholar Program.  She has served on the editorial board of two of the three top generalist journals in sociology (ASR and Social Forces) as well as specialty journals like Sociological Methodology and Journal of Higher Education.  Professor Leahey has been elected to council positions in three sections of the American Sociological Association – Methodology; Organization, Occupations, and Work (OOW); and Science, Knowledge, and Technology (SKAT) – and serves as Chair of the Methodology section for 2023-25.  Her research extends beyond sociology into the fields of higher education, management, and information science – where you can find many of her collaborators and some former PhD students as well. Professor Leahey regularly gives invited talks around the country, and has given keynote addresses in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, Canada, England, and Wales.