Lecture: John Torpey on the Uses of Comparison in Social Science

You are cordially invited to a lecture by Professor John Torpey, the recipient of the DAAD Alumni Association’s Award for Excellence in International Education & Exchange.

How does comparison work in the social sciences? Comparison is one of the most important tools in the social scientist’s toolkit. Indeed, it’s not too much to say that comparison is crucial to thought itself. Even if it is only implicit, comparison illuminates our world and sets it off against alternatives previous, present, and imagined. Prof. Torpey will discuss this insight on the basis of a number of examples, including one of the most famous: the idea of “American exceptionalism.”

John Torpey is Presidential Professor of Sociology and History and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute and the European Union Studies Center at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The lecture will take place in hybrid format: in-person at the Calandra Institute, and on Zoom. For either in-person or Zoom attendance, please register here or use the QR code.