Professor of Sociology, New York University, president of the Social Science Research Council, and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge

Neither the idea of extending help to distant strangers nor the conceptualization of their circumstances as humanitarian emergencies is simply given by the reality of human suffering nor explained by universalistic ethics alone. These reflect a specific history and specific ways of framing troubling events. Religious charity, colonial rule, ideals of progress, and the rise of mass media all play a role. Considering this history gives perspective on current challenges to the field of humanitarian action and invites the question of whether it is likely to be deeply changed by the end of the era in which it flourished.

Craig Calhoun is President of the Social Science Research Council, which has played a leading role in interdisciplinary, international research since 1923. He is also University Professor of Social Sciences at NYU. Calhoun received his doctorate from Oxford University and has also been a professor at the University of North Carolina and Columbia University as well as a visiting professor in Asmara, Beijing, Khartoum, Oslo and Paris. Calhoun's most recent book is Nations Matter: Culture, History, and the Cosmopolitan Dream (Routledge 2007). He has also edited Lessons of Empire: Historical Contexts for Understanding America’s Global Power (with F. Cooper and K. Moore, New Press 2006), Sociology in America (Chicago 2007), and The Public Mission of the Research University (with Diana Rhoten, Columbia University Press forthcoming). Among his best known earlier books are Critical Social Theory: Culture, History and the Problem of Specificity (Blackwell, 1995) and Neither Gods Nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (California, 1994)

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