Robert Perrucci

Ph.D., Sociology, Purdue University (1962)

Dr. Perrucci joined the faculty in 1962 and served as department head from 1978-87. He was research director for three years of the NSF sponsored study of the engineering profession conducted by the American Society for Engineering Education, and was Simon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in England. He has received over $2 million in external support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the American Sociological Association. He is the author/editor of 18 books and over 90 articles and chapters on topics related to work and occupations, complex organizations, and the impact of the global economy on workers, communities, and structures of inequality. He has five articles published in the American Sociological Review and others in Social Forces, Administrative Science Quarterly, Social Problems, Sociology of Education, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Psychiatry. He has served as editor of Social Problems, The American Sociologist, and associate editor of the American Sociological Review. He is currently co-editor with JoAnn Miller of Contemporary Sociology (2000-2005). He has held elected positions as President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the North Central Sociological Association, and Chair of the Organizations and Occupations section of the American Sociological Association. Two of his books have received the Scholarly Achievement Award of the North Central Sociological Association, and he has received Distinguished Alumnus Awards from the State University of New York, and Purdue University. In 2005 he received the Lee Founders Career Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and in 2008 he received the J. Milton Yinger Career Achievement Award from the North Central Sociological Association.

Positions at Purdue University

1978-87 Head, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

1963-66 Research Director, Goals of Engineering Education Project

1967 to present Professor of Sociology

1965-67 Associate Professor of Sociology

1962-65 Assistant Professor of Sociology

Service to the Profession

Editor, Contemporary Sociology, 2000-2005

Editor, Social Problems, 1993-96

Editor, The American Sociologist, 1983-85

Associate Editor, American Sociological Review, 1969-72

President, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 1999

Chair, Organizations and Occupations Section, ASA, 1982-83
President, North Central Sociological Association, 1973-74

Honors and Awards

J. Milton Yinger Award, North Central Sociological Association, 2008

Lee Founders Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2005

Scholarly Achievement Award, North Central Sociological Association, 1990 and1996

Simon Senior Research Fellow, University of Manchester, England, 1968-69

Five Most Important Publications

Perrucci, R. and M. Pilisuk, “Leaders and Ruling Elites: The Interorganizational Bases of Community Power,” American Sociological Review, December, 1970.

Perrucci, R. Circle of Madness: On Being Insane and Institutionalized in America. Prentice Hall, 1974.

Perrucci, R. Japanese Auto Transplants in the Heartland: Corporatism and Community. Aldine de Gruyter, 1994.

Perrucci, R. and E. Wysong, The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream? Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, 2003, 2008.

Perrucci, R. and C. Perrucci, America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring. Rowman and Littlefield, 2009

Two Most Recent Publications

C. Perrucci and R. Perrucci, “Economic Crisis and Its Effect on Hope, Trust, and Caring,” in C. M. Renzetti and R.K. Bergen (Eds.) Understanding Diversity:Celebrating Difference, Challenging Inequality, Allyn and Bacon, forthcoming.

R. Perrucci, “Too Big to Fail: A Network Perspective,” International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, forthcoming.

Extramural Grant Support

Principal Investigator, “Expanding Options for the Time and Timing of Work in a Continuous Operations Environment, “Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 2002-2005, $430,000.

Award Recipient with JoAnn Miller, American Sociological Association. 2001-05. $450,000.

Additional major research grants and awards in excess of $2 million have been received from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Mental Health, and the American Sociological Association.