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Ann Swidler holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and a BA from Harvard. She studies the interplay between culture and institutions, focusing on how cultural frameworks shape social life. Her notable works include 'Talk of Love' and 'Habits of the Heart', as well as a classic article titled 'Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies', published in the American Sociological Review in 1986. Her book 'Talk of Love: Culture Matters' examines how actors select elements from cultural repertoires and how culture is organized. Her most recent publication is 'Fraught Embrace: Romance, Reality, AIDS, and Altruism in Africa' (Princeton, 2017), which delves into the intersection of global and local responses to the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Swidler's research interests include the institutional creation of collective goods, African chieftaincy, religious congregations, NGOs, and social ecologies of religion, particularly in Malawi. In her teaching, she covers sociology of culture, sociology of religion, and sociological theory, while her research increasingly intersects with political sociology, development, and sociology of science and medicine.
University of California, Berkeley • Berkeley, CA
Teaches courses in sociology of culture, sociology of religion, and sociological theory.
The Mathematics Subject GRE is required for the Fall 2026 admissions cycle. General GRE is optional.