Degrees:
Ph.D. York University (Sociology)
MA York University (Sociology)
BA Augustana University College (Sociology)
Reviews Editor for Elicitations in Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies (http://imaginations.glendon.yorku.ca/)
International Visual Sociology Association, Board Member (January 2015-June 2018)
Primary Research Areas:
Sociological Theory
Visual Sociology
Contemporary Media and Digital Culture
The Urban Public Realm
Recent and Forthcoming Publications:
Milbrandt, T. “Season of Dreaded Joys: Adaptation, Enchantment, and Solidarity in a ‘Winter’ City”, for Seasonal Sociology, edited by T. Davidson and O. Park. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (forthcoming volume, Spring 2019)
Davidson, T., Milbrandt, T., & Park, O. “Introduction to Seasonal Sociology.” In Seasonal Sociology, edited by T. Davidson and O. Park. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (forthcoming volume, Spring 2019)
Milbrandt, T. 2017. “Caught on Camera, Posted Online: Mediated Moralities, Visual Politics and the Case of Urban ‘Drought-Shaming’”, Visual Studies, 32(1): 3-23. DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2016.1246952
Harper, D. and T. Milbrandt. 2016. “Seen and Imagined: A Northwestern Crossroads City”, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 7(1): 160-175. DOI: 10.17742/ IMAGE.NBW.7-1.13
Datta, R. P. and T. Milbrandt. 2014. “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Discursive Monument, Symbolic Feast”, Introduction to Special Issue on Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Contemporary Engagements, for The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 39(4): 473-522
Milbrandt, T. 2013. “Signs of the City: Space, Place, and the Urban Street Poster”, in Captured by the City: Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies. Edited by B. Momchedjikova, 49-70. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press
Milbrandt, T. 2012. "Visual Irruptions, Mediated Suffering, and the Robert Dziekanski Tragedy: An Inquiry into the Efficacy of the Image", in Ethics and Images of Pain. Edited by A. Gronstad and H. Gustafsson, 74-92. New York: Routledge
Milbrandt, T. and F. Pearce. 2011. “Émile Durkheim.” In The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, Volume I Classical Social Theorists. Edited by G. Ritzer and J. Stepnisky, 236-282. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell
Primary Teaching Areas:
Sociological Theory (Classical, Modern, Contemporary)
Visual Sociology
Mass Communication and Contemporary Society
Social Theory of Community
Specific courses I teach regularly at Augustana:
AUSOC101: Introduction to Sociology: Principles and Practices
AUSOC 103: Introduction to Sociology: Institutions and Insights
AUSOC 232 Theoretical Developments in Sociology 1: The Classical Tradition
AUSOC 233: Theoretical Developments in Sociology 2: Modern Theories
AUSOC 262: Mass Communication and Contemporary Society
AUSOC 263: Social Theory of Community
AUSOC 371: Visual Sociology
AUSOC 439: Seminar in Contemporary Sociological Theory
Selected topics that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. This seminar-style class is a key aspect of the Augustana First Year Experience. The focus and content of each course are determined by faculty interests, and vary from year to year.
Fall Term 2020Introduction to sociology focusing on understanding the relation between the individual and society using concepts like social control, class, role, self, reference group, ideology, and world view. Through the use of some popular films, specific attention is paid to understanding the way we (as particular individuals) are, in taken-for-granted ways, shaped by our membership in large and small groupings. The implications of this shaping for our ideas of freedom, individuality, and morality are debated and examined.
Fall Term 2020Introduction to sociology focusing on the relation between social institutions and everyday life. Through an examination of institutions like law, family, education, politics, religion, and economy, the course develops an understanding of themes such as changes in family organization, the relation between delinquency and power, and the relation between religion and economy. Prerequisite: AUSOC 101 or 105.
Winter Term 2021Survey of the origin and the development of classical sociological theory, with particular emphasis on Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Prerequisite: One of AUSOC 101, 103, 105.
Fall Term 2020Inquiry into the nature of the social, moral, and theoretic ground of human communities, taking as its starting point an examination of the sociological research on the urban/rural difference. Involved in this is an examination of the kinds of social theories that best help us understand the nature of community. For all of the above, Canada is the case study. Prerequisite: One of AUSOC 101, 103, 105, consent of the instructor.
Winter Term 2021An inquiry into visual representation in and of society; this includes the social dimensions that encompass the making, interpretation, and use of visual images, especially photographs, in collective life and within contemporary sociological research. Prerequisites: AUSOC 101, *3 at a senior level in Sociology and 3rd year standing or consent of the instructor.
Winter Term 2021