education

In this interview, Michele Lamont explains different facets of her intellectual work. She comments on the cultural sociology she practices and on her urge to both understand how individuals make their lives meaningful and how to make sociology meaningful.

How can the United States sustain the paradox of being a nation founded on freedom and equality while tolerating such levels of inequalities that many diagnose a return to the Gilded Age? For Shamus Khan, the answer lies in the social openness of some key American institutions: under the lure of diversity, they make the economic power of an elite whose privilege is based on merit rather than birth acceptable.