John Markoff

John Markoff, professor of sociology, history, and political science and chair of Pitt’s Department of Sociology, has been named a University Professor of Sociology, effective Sept. 1.

The University Professor title is given in recognition of eminence in several fields of study, transcending accomplishments in, and contributions to, a single discipline. Markoff is also a research professor in Pitt’s Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian and East European Studies, and Center for West European Studies, all within the University Center for International Studies.

Markoff studies social movements, the history of democratization, and comparative revolutions. He is the award-winning author of The Abolition of Feudalism (Penn State University Press, 1996) and coauthor of Revolutionary Demands (Stanford University Press, 1998), a book that explores the French Revolution. He also has written extensively about Latin American politics and studies how social movements and democratization have become “profoundly intertwined.” He looks at how globalization will impact the future of democracy and how the meaning of democracy has altered in social struggles.

He received the 2005 Distinguished Sociologist Award from the Pennsylvania Sociological Society for his contributions to the literature on social movements. His books have won the Pinkney Prize of the Society for French Historical Studies, the Sharlin Prize of the Social Science History Association, and the Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award of the American Sociological Association. In 2001, he received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.

At Pitt since 1972, Markoff has given presentations at dozens of conferences and authored many articles. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Columbia University and the Ph.D. degree in sociology from Johns Hopkins University.