Professor Alan Blum is Senior Professor in Sociology, Social and Political Thought, and Communication and Culture at York University, Toronto. Blum was born in Rockford Illinois, raised in Chicago and lived for significant periods in Boston, London, and Amsterdam, settling in New York for many years. Blum received his Phd from the University of Chicago, and was US National Institutes of Mental Health Fellow in the department of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at King's College of Cambridge University, England before becoming Professor of Sociology first at Columbia University and then New York University. Blum has been a Visiting Professor at universities in the US and the UK including the University of Wales, The Institute of Social Change of the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, the New College of the University of South Florida, and has been recipient of research fellowships from foundations such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the MacArthur Foundation, the Leverhulme Foundation, and of funding from Health and Welfare Canada, the Attorney General of Canada, The Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research among others.

I am Executive Director of the Culture of Cities Centre in Toronto; Senior Professor in Sociology, Social and Political Thought, and Communication and Culture at York University, Toronto; and Adjunct Professor at St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo. I received my Phd from the University of Chicago, and was US National Institutes of Mental Health Fellow in the department of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at King's College of Cambridge University, England before becoming Professor of Sociology first at Columbia University and then New York University. I have been a Visiting Professor at universities in the US and the UK including the University of Wales, The Institute of Social Change of the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, the New College of the University of South Florida, and have received research fellowships from foundations such as Leverhulme, and the MacArthur among others. I am the author of books, including The Grey Zone of Health and Illness; The Ethics of Care: Moral Knowledge, Communication and the Art of Caregiving (with Stuart Murray); The Dying Body as a Lived Experience; The Imaginative Structure of the City; Theorizing; On the Beginning of Social Inquiry (with Peter McHugh, Stanley Raffel and Daniel Foss) and Self-Reflection in the Arts and Sciences (with Peter McHugh). I was the originator and co-director of the Institute of Social Theory in Perugia, Italy (1978-83

Substantively, I am particularly interested in the mental life of modern society, especially as we are experiencing it today. My academic life has been devoted in part to envisioning and applying a path for educating young people by preparing them to pursue meaning through dialogue between equals. I treat all notions--such as democracy, justice, the city, God, sociology--as two-sided, registered both in the limits of commonplace talk and in its reflective potential, thus creating an ongoing tension between these two sides for any notion and in any case an opportunity for inquiry and research.

Professor Alan Blum is Senior Professor in Sociology, Social and Political Thought, and Communication and Culture at York University, Toronto. Blum was born in Rockford Illinois, raised in Chicago and lived for significant periods in Boston, London, and Amsterdam, settling in New York for many years. Blum received his Phd from the University of Chicago, and was US National Institutes of Mental Health Fellow in the department of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at King's College of Cambridge University, England before becoming Professor of Sociology first at Columbia University and then New York University. Blum has been a Visiting Professor at universities in the US and the UK including the University of Wales, The Institute of Social Change of the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, the New College of the University of South Florida, and has been recipient of research fellowships from foundations such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the MacArthur Foundation, the Leverhulme Foundation, and of funding from Health and Welfare Canada, the Attorney General of Canada, The Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research among others.

I am Executive Director of the Culture of Cities Centre in Toronto; Senior Professor in Sociology, Social and Political Thought, and Communication and Culture at York University, Toronto; and Adjunct Professor at St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo. I received my Phd from the University of Chicago, and was US National Institutes of Mental Health Fellow in the department of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at King's College of Cambridge University, England before becoming Professor of Sociology first at Columbia University and then New York University. I have been a Visiting Professor at universities in the US and the UK including the University of Wales, The Institute of Social Change of the University of California at Berkeley, Virginia Commonwealth University, the New College of the University of South Florida, and have received research fellowships from foundations such as Leverhulme, and the MacArthur among others. I am the author of books, including The Grey Zone of Health and Illness; The Ethics of Care: Moral Knowledge, Communication and the Art of Caregiving (with Stuart Murray); The Dying Body as a Lived Experience; The Imaginative Structure of the City; Theorizing; On the Beginning of Social Inquiry (with Peter McHugh, Stanley Raffel and Daniel Foss) and Self-Reflection in the Arts and Sciences (with Peter McHugh). I was the originator and co-director of the Institute of Social Theory in Perugia, Italy (1978-83

Substantively, I am particularly interested in the mental life of modern society, especially as we are experiencing it today. My academic life has been devoted in part to envisioning and applying a path for educating young people by preparing them to pursue meaning through dialogue between equals. I treat all notions--such as democracy, justice, the city, God, sociology--as two-sided, registered both in the limits of commonplace talk and in its reflective potential, thus creating an ongoing tension between these two sides for any notion and in any case an opportunity for inquiry and research.