Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Diplomatic rituals and ceremonies that surround official interstate interaction are often dismissed by scholars as cheap talk or mere window dressing. Rituals and ceremonies concerning who sits where, how oaths are to be sworn, ceremonies of signing, ceremonies of international visits, rules of precedent, and so on seem trivial at best and vainglorious at worst. This paper argues that the rituals and ceremonies surrounding diplomatic interaction are much more than mere window-dressing. In particular, it argues that they can accomplish three different things: 1) they can act as effective signals of power, 2) they can institutionalize power relations, thereby giving power relations added stability, and 3) they can give certain actors access to procedural privileges (such as agenda-setting power). The paper explains what each of these effects means, how rituals accomplish them, and which rituals can accomplish them under what circumstances. Rituals of conduct are not just niceties that have no impact on substantive politics. Rather, through ritual and ceremony states compete over and institutionalize power. Moreover, by constraining states, ritual and ceremony exert a powerful ordering and disciplining influence on the international system.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Culture matters in international development. Scholars and previous projects have illustrated how development and poverty reduction fail when culture is not emphasized and incorporated into the plan. A difficult question to answer emerges: why culture matters. This question is particularly vexing because it is at once deep and broad. However, an understanding of the role of culture will serve to facilitate more successful and sustainable development efforts. This paper analyzes a specific component of culture: rituals; it looks first at examples of rituals used in development and then provides a theory for why rituals work in development situations. Rituals represent moments of collective shared memory, emotion, power and individual agency; ultimately through rituals the marginalized are provided voice. Through this analysis, important lessons and opportunities emerge for tapping into this power and incorporating it into development projects. The understanding and use of rituals represents a new strategy in understanding why culture matters.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper investigates how the formal elements of religious rituals manifest themselves in cyberspace, and the potential for their efficacy when enacted in the virtual environment. Drawing on the media ecological position that media change holds profound implications for the way a society perceives, thinks about, and behaves in the world, the author examines several examples of online religious rituals to suggest that the media environment of cyberspace enables ritual in new--and potentially effective--ways.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: I address problems in Alexander’s recent development of “Cultural Pragmatics” (2004) through a discussion of Emile Durkheim’s and Walter Benjamin’s thoughts on ritual. Alexander’s “Cultural Pragmatics” rely on a concept of ritual he inherits from Durkheim. I will show four points in the following paper. First, the problem of ritual Alexander describes is, according to Benjamin, an indicator of two deeper developments. These are: a.) an “epistemic shift” in the basis of knowledge from the material and praxis to the ideal and b.) an inversion of the positions of subject and object. Second, the “mimetic faculty” allows for a society both socialized and agentic. While relegated to history, this model of society may point a theoretical way out of the structure/agency debate in sociology. Third, Benjamin’s emphasis on magic’s role in the mimetic faculty speaks to the key to understanding symbols, that symbols are “magical” by both being what they are and something else. Objects can no longer be magical, according to Benjamin, and have lost their capacity to be symbols. Last, I question Alexander’s resurrection of ritual in contemporary sociology for failing to consider these points, which the death of ritual designates.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The proposed activity will advance sociological theory by testing the fundamental biosocial interaction rituals established in previous research and applying these interaction rituals to a deviant subpopulation that present diagnostic impairments in social interactions; individuals with Autism. Previous research has established that interaction partners converge speaking fundamental frequency; providing a biosocial basis of social order. Symbolic interaction posits that taking the role of the other is the first step in developing self through social interaction. This inability to develop self and successfully take the role of the other prevents individuals with Autism from optimal social interaction. This research seeks to test the relationship between speaking fundamental frequency convergence and Autism. The second part of this study will explore the implications of dichotic filtration on the processing of verbal and paraverbal communication. It is hypothesized that individuals with Autism are significantly less likely to adapt to the SFF of conversation partners compared to the nonautistic control group. It is also hypothesized that the introduction of dichotic listening devices will reduce the overstimulation in the right hemisphere as demonstrated by increased accuracy in task completion. The proposed research project will advance sociological understanding of biosocial interaction rituals while providing a crucial piece of the Autism puzzle. The implications of this research extend across disciplines and into everyday social life for many individuals affected by Autism.