Congratulations to Juan Quiroz who successfully passed this dissertation proposal defense. His committee was chaired by Dr. Stjepan Meštrović, members included Dr. Holly Foster, Dr. Robert Mackin, and Dr. Adam Seipp (History). Juan's proposal is titled "The Age of Fatalism: Consequences in Contemporary Sensate Culture."
Juan's dissertation will analyze Durkheim’s concept of fatalism and Pitirim Sorokin’s concept of sensate culture, and recontextualize their concepts in relation to contemporary society. Using hermeneutics, the meaning and social context of the concepts, fatalism and sensate culture will be examined in relation to theory and data indicative of these concepts. In particular, social trends on suicide rates, mental illness, and other indicators of social malaise will be analyzed in the context of this new reading and application of Durkheim’s and Sorokin’s social theories.
The team of three PhD students - Rhiannon Powers, Edward Smith and Juan Quiroz have been working towards the PhD milestones together under the guidance of Dr. Stjepan Meštrović (see the picture attached). All of them recently passed their dissertation proposal defense.
Congratulations, Juan!