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Ronjon Paul Datta

Dr. Ronjon Paul DattaRonjon Paul Datta, PhD, MA, BAH, BTh
Associate Professor

Office: 156-3 CHS
Email: rpdatta@uwindsor.ca
Telephone: 519.253.3000 ext. 3975
 

 

Research and Teaching Areas

Dr. Ronjon Paul Datta is an award-winning Associate Professor and Member of the Graduate Faculty in the Department of Sociology & Criminology, Member of Canterbury College, Executive Committee Member in the Canadian Sociological Association, member of the Racial Justice Committee of the Windsor University Faculty Association, a former Senator for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences UWindsor, and HRG Research Fellow. As a social theorist who doctored in sociology with the world renown expert in law and social theory, Dr. Alan Hunt, and completed an MA thesis on Durkheim under the supervision of leading radical Durkheimian sociologist, Dr. Frank Pearce, Dr. Datta’s work focuses on power, metatheory, and the sacred in society, developing new critical theoretical resources for analyzing and explaining a variety of social dynamics shaping capitalist societies. Presently, he is writing a book on Durkheim and religion for Routledge, and continues research on metatheory, including its implications for analyzing power. He received a Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal for his doctoral work on Michel  Foucault, social theory, political sociology, and the philosophy of social science. An internationally recognized expert in Durkheimian studies, Foucauldian and Althusserian thought, and the philosophy of social science, his work has appeared in major academic venues in Canada, Britain, France, the USA, and Turkey, such as: International Social Science Journal (Paris: UNESCO), The Canadian Review of Sociology, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Journal of Classical Sociology, L’Année Sociologique, The Canadian Journal of Sociology, Critical Sociology, and Durkheimian Studies. He has published on a wide variety of topics including contemporary Marxist theory, nominalism and realism in classical and contemporary social theory, and the 2014 editorship, with Dr. Tara Milbrandt, of the largest issue of The Canadian Journal of Sociology ever produced, dedicated to Durkheim’s work on religion, and featuring established and emerging national and international scholars. Other publications discuss: suicidality and social pathology; poststructuralist political economy and morality; the metaphysics of morals in security discourse; Durkheim, morality and law; zombie capitalism, the political economy of debt; religion, power and the sacred; the philosophy of social science; justice, post-politics; cosmopolitanism; aleatory materialism; Critical Realism; and Critical Theory. Prior to arriving in Windsor in 2013, he was Assistant Professor of Social Theory and Culture and Director of the Intermedia Research Studio in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. He has also worked as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mount Allison University. Dr. Datta is known to be a committed educator meriting the Bill Meloff Memorial Teaching Award from the University of Alberta. The courses he has taught in his career cover a wide range including: classical and contemporary social theory, religion, law, political criminology, religion, economic sociology, political sociology, postmodernism, social inequality, technology and society, qualitative methodology, and dedicated on-going advanced seminars on Michel Foucault, and another on sacrifice. In recognition of his service to UWindsor, in December 2015 he received an “Innovation Award for Recruitment” from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS), and for his expertise in Durkheimian studies, the Humanities Research Group Research Fellowship, UWindsor, 2018-19. In his spare time, he enjoys playing tennis, cooking, following Formula 1, fitness, playing piano and electronic music, and exploring the City of Windsor and Essex County.

 
 

Recent Courses Taught

Religion and Society (SACR 2170)
Morals, Markets, and Myths (SACR 2220 - economic sociology)
Theorizing Social Life (SACR 2910 - classical social theory)
Contemporary Social Theory (SACR 3910)
Advanced Seminar in Social Theory (SACR 4050) at the 4th year
Sociological Theory (SACR 8000) at the MA and PhD level
Classical Theories and Beyond (SACR 8010) at the MA and PhD level

Education

PhD, Carleton University, (Sociology, Dr. Alan Hunt - Supervisor)
MA, Queen's University at Kingston, (Sociology, Dr. Frank Pearce - Supervisor)
BA, Honours, Trent University (Sociology - First Class & Recipient of the Rodney F. White Prize in Sociology)
BTh, Master’s College and Seminary/EPBC (Pastoral Theology - Highest Honours)
Certificate in Religion and Politics, Assumption University
French Language Proficiency Certificate, University of Ottawa
 

Recent and Key Publications

  • Datta, Ronjon Paul. 2022. Ideology and Social Reproduction in Capitalist Societies: Louis Althusser’s Theoretical Intervention. Reading Sociology: Decolonizing Canada, Fourth Edition. Eds. Johanne Jean-Pierre, Vanessa Watts, Carl E. James, Patrizia Albanese, Xiaobei Chen, Michael Graydon. Toronto: Oxford University Press and the Canadian Sociological Association.

Key Awards

  • Humanities Research Group Fellowship, Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, The University of Windsor, (2018-2019).
  • Innovation Award (Recruitment), Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, The University of Windsor (2015).
  • Bill Meloff Memorial Teaching Award, The Department of Sociology,The University of Alberta (2013).
  • Governor General of Canada Academic Gold Medal (2008).
  • University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work – Doctoral Level, Carleton University (2008).

Academic Society Involvement