Thomas Cushman (born 1959) is an American sociologist best known for his work on human rights, freedom of expression, and dissent. He currently serves as the Deffenbaugh de Hoyos Carlson Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College .

🎓 Education & Early Career

• Earned a B.S. in Psychology from Saint Michael’s College (1981).

• Completed M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1987) in Sociology at the University of Virginia. His Ph.D. thesis focused on Soviet social conformity and ritual (en.wikipedia.org).

• Received a FLAS Fellowship for intensive Russian language study and certification in Soviet and East European Studies (www1.wellesley.edu).

• Taught briefly at the University of Texas at Austin before joining Wellesley’s faculty in 1989 (www1.wellesley.edu).

🧠 Areas of Expertise

• Modernity, sociology of knowledge, intellectuals, ideology

• Individualism, dissent, freedom of expression

• Non-Western philosophies and Western social theory intersections (www1.wellesley.edu)

📚 Major Publications

Notable books include:

• Notes from Underground: Rock Music Counterculture in Russia (1995), based on fieldwork in St. Petersburg; named an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice (goodreads.com, www1.wellesley.edu).

• Critical Theory and the War in Bosnia and Croatia (1997)

• co-editor of George Orwell: Into the 21st Century (2005)

• Editor of A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq (2005)

• Co-editor of Terror, Iraq and the Left: Christopher Hitchens and His Critics (2008)

• Co-editor of The Religious in Responses to Mass Atrocity (2009)

• Editor of The Routledge Handbook of Human Rights (2011) (www1.wellesley.edu).

🏛️ Institutional Leadership

• Founded the Journal of Human Rights in 2000; served as Editor-in-Chief until 2005 and remains Editor-at-Large (www1.wellesley.edu).

• Received NSF grants for research including post-war Sarajevo interethnic trust and mistrust interviews (www1.wellesley.edu).

• Founded Wellesley’s Freedom Project in 2012 to foster pluralism and free expression, including student internships with international bodies (wellesley.edu).

🌍 Service & Honors

• Fellowships, visiting appointments and associations include:

  • Harvard Russian Research Center

  • Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights

  • Visiting professor at Brandeis University, Birkbeck College (London), University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

  • Senior Research Fellow, Wake Forest’s Eudaimonia Institute

  • Faculty Fellow, Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology (www1.wellesley.edu)

• Advisory/testimony roles in UK Parliament, US Congressional Committee on Foreign Relations; speaks at national/international policy forums .

• Organized over 100 public lectures at Wellesley; advised Bosnian leaders and arranged student internships at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (www1.wellesley.edu).

Summary: Thomas Cushman is a distinguished sociologist whose scholarship bridges cultural studies, political sociology, and human rights. His extensive contributions include influential publications, academic leadership, and active engagement in public policy and international justice initiatives.

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