User:Don Levine

1. Mode of intellectual work

turning dogmatic partisan controversies into mutually respectful dialogues
Accomplishments
*President of Social Theory Section, American Sociological Association, involving prep discussions and daylong conference on ways to resurrect fruitful exchanges;
*Widely hailed Visions of the Sociological Tradition (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1995), designed to produce dialogue among different narratives regarding the sociological tradition and offering "dialogical narrative" as form of choice for today's world;
*Supervising dissertation by Social Thought candidate Adam Kissel, on the architectonics of interdisciplinary communication

Acknowledgements
*Dedication of volume by alumni of NEH Seminar for College Teachers: “These essays are indebted to Professor Donald N. Levine, our director for the seminar. What Wallace Stevens said of the poet is surely true of Don: he fulfills himself as he sees his imagination become the light in the minds of others.”
*R.K. Merton on Visions of the Sociological Tradition: "A major work of social theory for our time. A knowing and brilliant synthesis of diverse readings of the developing sociological tradition."
*Festschrift, The Dialogical Turn: Essays in Honor of Donald N. Levine. Ed. Charles Camic and Hans Joas. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

New projects

*Inquiry into theoretical and practical bases of diverse forms of dialogue (w/Chas Camic, Adam Kissel, Tom Smith??)
*Inquiry into semantics of Wisdom

2. Mode of curriculum and pedagogy

teaching conversation as culminating power of new curriculum of the liberal arts
Accomplishments:
*Yearlong conversations among U of Chicago faculty culminating in resurrected two-year curriculum of general education
*Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America. University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Acknowledgments
*Blurbs by NYRB reviewers and Lee Shulman, etc.
*Powers as the subject of annual faculty seminar at Ping Institute in the Humanities, Ohio University, Miami, OH, in February 2008

New projects

*Promotion of curricula oriented to teaching dialogical powers.
*Promotion of New School formula of bi-departmental appointments.

3. Mode of nonviolent political action

helping a polarized Ethiopian polity move beyond archaic dysfunctional communication styles that reinforce a penchant for violent solutions

Accomplishments:
Served as solo initial mediator between the regime and the opposition parliamentarians imprisoned en masse following demonstrations in the wake of May 2005 elections.
Authored series of widely hailed statements about bringing the polarized sides together published at website of the Ethiopian Institute for Nonviolent Education and Peace Studies, www.eineps.org/forum
Keynote speaker at 4th International Conference on Ethiopian Development Studies, Western Michigan University, August 3, 2007
Participant in conferences to restore confidence in Ethiopia's political future and promote inter-religious harmony, part of yearlong millennial celebrations, Addis Ababa, Jan 2008.

Acknowledgments:
From an Ethiopian American leader: "You cannot imagine the impact you have had on getting Ethiopians from the polarized groups to start talking to one another."
From organizers of conference on building political confidence in the future of Ethiopia:
"You are the only person in whom both sides have confidence. We cannot hold this conference without you."
From Somali doctor: "I wept through your keynote address. You must come and meet with our Horn of Africa Peace Group in Dallas."

 

New projects

Awassa Peace Dojo expansion
Intervening in inter-tribal conflicts with "stop the violence" budo

4. Mode of bodymind practices

advancing aikido as a practice devoted to resolving attacks of any sort in a harmonious and constructive manner
Accomplishments
*Twenty-five-year stewardship of University of Aikido Club
*Taught acclaimed "Conflict theory and Aikido" course at University for twenty years;
*Founder and president, Aiki Extensions, Inc. <www.aiki-extensions.org>
*Organized Training Across Borders seminar in Nicosia, Cyprus, April 2005, for a hundred participants from a dozen countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region and beyond
*Initiated, co-directed, and supported Salaam Shalom Aikido project, Israel and Palestine, 2005-present

Acknowledgments
*Awarded rank of yondan (4th-degree black belt) by the International Aikido Association
*Vote of confidence of renewed growth by AE Board of Directors on August 23, 2007

New projects

*Peace Dojos Worldwide
*Conference on Aikido in Higher Education
*Enlarging youth outreach dojos into youth growth centers
*Extending aikido to warring tribes in Southern Ethiopia
*Participation in WISDOM research group

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from : http://sociology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/levine.shtml

Journals

Dr. Levine serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Classical Sociology, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Theory, Culture and Society, and the Aiki Thought papers.

Centers

Committee on African Studies

Research Interests

Culture, Social Theory, and Transnational Processes.

Selected Publications

Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
"Merton's Ambivalence towards Autonomous Theory-and Ours." Canadian Journal of Sociology 31(2), 2006.
"Japan, Ethiopia, and Jamaica: A Century of Globally Linked Modernizations." International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 2(1), 2006.
"Somatic Elements in Social Conflict." In Embodying Sociology: Retrospect, Progress and Prospects, ed. Chris Shilling. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
"Georg Simmel." In Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative and the Contemporary Thinkers, ed. John Scott. London: Routledge, 2006.
"Does Modernity have a Core Ethical Complex After All?" In The Concept of Modernity, ed. Gerard Delanty (forthcoming).
"Reconfiguring the Ethiopian Nation in a Global Era," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 2005.
"Modernization and its endless discontents." After Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the 21st Century, Russell Sage, 2005.
"The Continuing Challenge of Weber's Theory of Rational Action, Economy and Society at 2000, Stanford University Press, 2005.
The Dialogical Turn. Essays in Honors of Donald N. Levine, ed. C. Camic and Hans Joas. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
"Dialogues of the Nations: Revisiting Visions and Its Critics, The Sociological Quarterly, 2001.
Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society, revised edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Amharic translation: Tiliqua Etyopya. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press, 2001.
"Ethiopia and Japan in Comparative Civilizational Perspective." Passages: Journal of Transnational and Transcultural Studies, Spring 2001.
"On the Critique of 'Utilitarian' Theories of Action: Newly Identified Convergences Among Simmel, Weber, and Parsons, Theory, Culture and Society, 2000.
"Theory and Practice Revisited: Reflections on the Philosophies of Richard McKeon and Talcott Parsons,"
Pluralism in Theory and Practice: Richard McKeon and American Philosophy, Vanderbilt University Press, 2000.
"Simmel Reappraised," in Reclaiming the Sociological Classics, ed. Charles Camic. London: Blackwell, 1997.
Visions of the Sociological Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Portuguese translation: Vis.1es da Tradi? .o Sociol ?gica. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 1997.
"Conflict, Aggression, and the Body in Euro-American and Asian Social Thought." International Journal of Group Tensions 24 (1994): 205-17.
The Flight from Ambiguity: Essays in Social and Cultural Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985; paperback, 1988.
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