Jonathan B. Imber
Jonathan Imber is Class of 1949 Professor in Ethics and Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College. A member of the faculty since 1981, he earlier taught at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. From 1989-1991 he was appointed Whitehead Associate Professor Chair of Critical Thought, Wellesley College.
At Wellesley, Professor Imber teaches courses on Social Problems; Classical Sociological Theory; Medical Sociology and Social Epidemiology; and Professions and Professional Ethics.
Jonathan Imber obtained the B.A. degree magna cum laude in 1974 from Brandeis University. He was awarded the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and 1979 respectively. In addition, Professor Imber studied in England at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1972-73.
In 1998, Dr. Imber was appointed Editor-in-Chief of SOCIETY, having previously served as Editor of The American Sociologist (1995-1998) and as Co-Editor, with Wellesley colleague, Rosanna Hertz, of Qualitative Sociology (1991-1994). His recent publications include, Studying Elites Using Qualitative Methods, edited by Rosanna Hertz and Jonathan B. Imber (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995); and Constructive Sociological Theory: The Forgotten Legacy of Thomas G. Masaryk, edited by Alan N. Woolfolk and Jonathan B. Imber (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994). In addition, he has published The Feeling Intellect: Selected Writings of Philip Rieff, edited and with an introduction by Jonathan B. Imber (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); and Abortion and the Private Practice of Medicine (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986).
In 1991, he was appointed a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., for the academic year 1991-1992. He is the recipient of grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the James Picker Foundation Program on the Human Qualities of Medicine. He is an Associate Editor of Visual Sociology and a member of the Editorial Board of The American Sociologist.
Dr. Imber's recent articles include, "Medical Publicity Before Bioethics: Nineteenth-Century Illustrations of Twentieth-Century Dilemmas," in Bioethics and Society: Constructing the Ethical Enterprise, edited by Raymond DeVries and Janaradan Subedi (Prentice-Hall 1998); The Vocation of Academic Freedom, Introduction to The Revolt Against Dualism, by Arthur O. Lovejoy (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996); Therapies and Pieties, in The American Enterprise (4:3, May/June, 1993), pp. 18-22; and Doctor No Longer Knows Best: Changing Attitudes toward Medicine and Health, in America at Century's End, edited by Alan Wolfe (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991). Other articles and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, International Encyclopedia of Communication, The Responsive Community, Human Studies, Contemporary Sociology, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, The Hastings Center Report, Social Forces, and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Jonathan Imber is a member of the American Sociological Association, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and he has served on the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of School and Colleges as well as the Interdisciplinary Review Panel for the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program, Department of Education.
Profile last updated: 7/00