Alexander Weinreb

Interests

Biography

My primary research interests are in the relationship between group-level identities (family, clan, tribe, region, religion, nation, etc.) and a range of social and demographic outcomes. This has inevitably taken me into varied theoretical and disciplinary turf (from micro-sociological theory to political economy).  Since most of my research has focused on sub-Saharan African societies, I have also developed important secondary interests in data collection methodology, in particular the extent to which standard survey methods can be usefully applied in developing country settings (they can be, but with limitations). 

My most important new research interests are in global religious change over long historical periods, and in the sociology of Judaism. Aside from these, I also have latent interests - gradually encroaching on shelf space - in the sociology of genocide and the demography of arid lands.