This two-volume set features original contributions by leading cultural sociologists and social theorists on the core dimensions of Jeffrey Alexander’s sociological thought and its development over time and across the world. Together, these scholars consider how Alexander’s work and his humanity have inspired deep reflections on the nature of cultural analysis and comparison, on the classical founders of the discipline, on the state of theory as a global project, and why cultural sociology continues to be a fertile site for developing the future of sociological theory in the twenty-first century. Readers will gain new insights into the ideas and networks that have formed through the nearly five decades of engagement with Alexander’s work.

Dr. Celso M. Villegas is NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at Kenyon College. He studies middle-class formation and democracy, charisma and cultural performance, and civil sphere theory around the world. Among his recently published articles are “The Civil Sphere and Social Class” in in the journal Cultural Sociology (2023) and “The Drama Surrounding Intellectuals” in Dramatic Intellectuals (2025). He curates the Alexander Papers at Kenyon College.

Dr. Galen Watts is Assistant Professor in the department of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo. His research concerns cultural and institutional change in liberal democracies since the 1960s—with a focus on the spheres of religion, science, morality, work, and politics. His first book, The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity, published by Oxford University Press, won the 2023 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Distinguished Book Award. And in 2026, he won the Canadian Sociological Association’s Early Investigator Award.