Syed Raza joined Kenyon’s Department of Sociology in July 2026. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.P.H. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University. His research asks how people give moral meaning to institutions that often appear technical, economic or secular.

Raza’s current project, based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Chicago metropolitan area, examines Islamic finance as a site where Muslims debate religious authority, economic practice, capitalism, and everyday moral responsibility. He is also developing new research on how emerging technologies and bioethical questions, including artificial intelligence, are being interpreted, debated, and incorporated in Muslim religious and communal life.

More broadly, Raza works across social theory, historical sociology, cultural political economy, mixed methods and South Asian studies to study religion, expertise, inequality, democracy, development and belonging. Before sociology, he worked in public health research in New York City on disability, access and inequality.

Areas of Expertise

Cultural political economy, religion and secularity, knowledge and expertise, global sociology

Education

2026 — Doctor of Philosophy from Univ Texas Austin

2017 — Masters in Public Health from Columbia University

2013 — Bachelor of Science from University of Kentucky

Courses Recently Taught

Special Topic

This course introduces students to the field of sociology through the study of social inequalities as they are created, maintained, and challenged within the institutions of our everyday lives. This course covers major themes in sociology by exploring how society operates within and through social institutions; how those institutions create and maintain social norms that disenfranchise some while privileging others; and how individuals challenge those norms to enact change in their everyday lives, local communities, and society at large. This course analyzes social structures and their impact on the experiences of individuals. We look at the ways in which social structures construct and constrain reality for individuals and how society and social institutions shape individual values, attitudes, and behaviors. The course examines sociological concepts through an analysis of culture, social inequality, social institutions, social movements, and social change. By the end of the course, students should understand common sociological concepts and perspectives and be able to consider aspects of the social world through the sociological lens. Students may take only one introductory-level course. This counts toward the foundation requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

The first part of this course examines the underlying philosophical and sociological foundations of modern science and rationality. It begins by examining the differences between the ancient Greek and medieval views of physics, causality and organic nature; and the modern worldview of natural science in Galileo, Descartes and Newton. We then turn to the debates within the philosophy of science (Burtt, Popper, Kuhn, Quine, Feyerabend and Rorty) and the sociology of science (Scheler, Ellul, Leiss, Marcuse and Habermas) about the nature of scientific inquiry and the social/political meaning of scientific discoveries. Does science investigate the essential reality of nature, or is it influenced by the wider social relations and practical activities of modern industrial life? Does science reflect the nature of reality or the nature of society? We deal with the expanded rationalization of modern society: the application of science and technological rationality (efficiency, productivity and functionality) to economic, political and social institutions. We examine the process of modernization and rationalization in science, labor, politics, the academy and ecology. Finally, we discuss the debates within the environmental movement between the deep and social ecologists as to the nature and underlying causes of the environmental crisis. Readings are from T. Kuhn, M. Berman, H. Braverman, E. A. Burtt, M. Horkheimer, C. Lasch, F. Capra and M. Bookchin. Prerequisite: 100-level sociology course.