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Ronjon Paul Datta

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

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

 

Currently on Sabbatical until June 30, 2024

Research:

Dr. Ronjon Paul Datta is an award-winning Associate Professor and Member of the Graduate Faculty in the Department. In June 2023, along with co-author Dr. Reza Nakhaie, he received the Canadian Sociological Association Best Journal Article Award for making "an outstanding contribution to the advancement of sociological knowledge" (CSA). 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 and Foucault under the supervision of leading radical Durkheimian social theorists, 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. 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, The Canadian Journal of Sociology, and Durkheimian Studies. He has published on a wide variety of topics including suicidality, contemporary economic sociology, sacrifice, criminology, sovereignty, nominalism and realism, anti-security, 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. Prior to arriving in Windsor in 2013, Dr. Datta 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. 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 social theory and religion he merited the 2018-2019 HRG Research Fellowship from UWindsor. As a co-founder, he also organizes activities for the Canadian Network of Durkheimian Studies/ Réseau canadien d’études durkheimienne (CNDS/RCED), an internationally recognized venue for Durkheim scholars, and Research Cluster of the Canadian Sociological Association.

 

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).
  • 2023, Canadian Review of Sociology Best Article Award.

Academic Society Involvement: