Dr. Ryan McVeigh

My research efforts are broadly split into two domains; both are truly interdisciplinary. On the one hand, I explore the social dimensions of embodiment, selfhood, and cognition. I am particularly interested in how understandings of the mind and brain helped ground the production of early social theory. I thus tend to read a lot of 19th century social science, history of psychology, and work today in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind. Although sociologists don't normally think about how embodiment or cognitive processes affect social life, I think it's crucial to fully understand what it means to be human. I recently wrote a book about this very topic, in fact, so you should totally check it out....

Completely unrelated to that area of research is my love of monsters. This body of work explores the historical, cultural, and social importance of monstrous forms (think: vampires, zombies, shapeshifters, and the like). More than simply being stock figures in literature, film, mythology, and art, monsters are epistemologically interesting; they contradict and undermine our ability to know and act in the world.

Latest Publications:

McVeigh, Ryan. 2023. The Cognitive Foundations of Classical Sociological Theory. London: Routledge

McVeigh, Ryan. 2021. “Never Merely a Peg: The body in symbolic interaction.” Symbolic Interaction, 44(4):855-857.

McVeigh, Ryan. 2020. “Organism and Environment in Auguste Comte.” History of the Human Sciences, 34(3), 76-97.

McVeigh, Ryan. 2020. “The Body in Mind: Mead’s embodied cognition.” Symbolic Interaction, 43(3):493-513.

McVeigh, Ryan. 2020. “The Neurosociology of Auguste Comte.” Social Science Information, 59(2):329-354.