Faculty
David Jacobson
Professor
CONTACT
Office: CPR 228
Email
BIO
David Jacobson is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary
Social Sciences at the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp. He has been Visiting Fellow at
Sciences Po (CERI and CEVIPOF), Visiting Professor at the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Milan and
he was the 2017-2018 Fulbright Research Fellow, at PRIO (Peace Research Institute
of Oslo), among other institutions. Born in South Africa, he received his training
at Princeton ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp (PhD), the London School of Economics (MSc) and the Hebrew
ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp (BA).
His latest book, with Manlio Cinalli at the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Milan, Citizenship: The Third Revolution, has just been published with Oxford ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp Press, in September 2023. The book
is the inaugural monograph in the new Oxford Studies on Migration and Citizenship.
His prior book (monograph) was, Of Virgins and Martyrs: Woman's Status in Global Conflict, Johns Hopkins ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp Press, 2014. Professor Jacobson is also the author of,
among other works, Rights Across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship (JHUP), a core text on the debate on postnationalism and citizenship. He also authored
Place and Belonging in America (JHUP).
A political sociologist, his two main areas of research are on citizenship and on
civic violence. Under those rubrics he has worked on human rights; immigration; refugees;
religion and conflict; civil conflict and war; borders and global seams; and woman's
status in global conflict. Geographically, his work has covered the United States,
Europe and West Africa. He has directed surveys and research teams in Western Europe,
West Africa and in Southeast Asia.
Other, ongoing projects include a study, with colleagues at the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Oslo
and NTNU, in the disciplines of archaeology, osteology, philology and sociology, on
Viking violence; and research, with collaborators at the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp,
on the trajectories of ESG and its relationship to human rights.
He has led a major project which examined how Islamist militancy has risen and remained
engaged in Nigeria and West Africa, focusing on the ethnic, political, economic and
geographic contexts. The research has been extensively disseminated in scholarship,
international media, and presentations to policy bodies. The work has extended beyond
Nigeria to Mali, West and North Africa. He also was one of the P.I's on a a five year,
multi-university, three continent examination of trends in Muslim communities, in
the context of the rise of militant movements and the different forms of opposition
to these movements. The study drew on surveys, ethnography and web scraping and studies.
He developed, with Natalie Deckard, the "Tribalism Index," for gauging levels of tribalism
and the outcomes for civil violence, voting, civic resilience, and other political
and sociological outcomes.
He presented the Haar Lecture in International Sociology at Princeton ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp.
He has had visiting appointments at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, CEVIPOF
and CERI at Sciences Po, the ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Milan, the Leonard Davis Institute of
International Relations at the Hebrew ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp, and at the Peace Research Institute
Oslo (PRIO).
At invitation, he has also made presentations at, inter alia, Sciences Po (Paris),
European ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp Institute, the National Assembly in France (IPSE), CEVIPOF-Paris,
UC Santa Barbara, the Sorbonne, Yale ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Chicago, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp
of Geneva, Columbia ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of British Columbia (Vancouver), Stony
Brook, Hebrew ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Jerusalem, UCLA, OsloMet, New School of Social Research,
ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Florida, Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, Stockholm ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp, NYU,
UC San Diego, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Bath, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Heidelberg, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Neuchatel,
NMSU, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Munich, ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp of Oslo, UC Irvine, CEVIPOF, Whitlam Institute-Sydney,
Franklin College in Lugano-Switzerland, and others.
His work has featured in Salon.com, New York Times, France 2 Television, the Nation,
La Croix, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Tages Anzeiger, Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
Foreign Policy, Sonntags Zeitung, Haaretz, the German feminist magazine EMMA, and
a variety of other media outlets.
He also co-founded the Global Resolve Initiative, which helps villagers in developing
countries develop alternative energy technologies, with a pilot project in Ghana.
Global Resolve received the 2009 Creasman Award for Excellence.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Princeton ÅÝܽÊÓÆµapp, 1991