Ryan Light

PhD Candidate

Office: 300 Bricker Hall | Phone: 614.292.6881 | E-Mail: light.36@sociology.osu.edu


About.

I am a PhD candidate at The Ohio State University. In my spare time, I like to read, run, appreciate the thriving Ohio music scene, and play pick-up basketball.

Current Work.

I study stratification, cultural sociology, social networks and historical sociology. My dissertation, Structure, Culture, and Meaning in American Slave Narratives, contributes to the broad literature on inequality and power by investigating the everyday lives of slaves in their own words. My analyses shed important empirical light on the relationship between the powerful and the powerless by asking how former slaves interpreted, dealt with, and resisted the everyday conditions of enslavement. I also explore specific variations in the slave experience by key status distinctions (i.e. gender) and context (i.e. regional variations). Currently, I am an editorial associate for the American Sociological Review . In the fall, I will be a Presidential Fellow at Ohio State.

Recent Publications.

Light, Ryan and Vinnie Roscigno. 2007. “Race Attitudes and the Alternative Realities of Workers and Bosses” Pp. 39-55 in The Face of Discrimination by Vincent J. Roscigno. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Moody, James and Ryan Light. 2006. “A View From Above: The Evolving Sociological Landscape.” The American Sociologist 37:67-86.

Department of Sociology • The Ohio State University • 300 Bricker Hall • 190 N. Oval Mall • Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: 614.292.6681 • Fax: 614.292.6687