Fields of Study
- Sociology of Culture
- Theory
Areas of Interest
Research and Teaching Areas: Culture, Cognition, Creativity, Theory, Sociological Social Psychology.
Statement on teaching and research interests
Gordon’s research examines how cognitive processes and social and cultural life interrelate. This includes examining how cognition shapes creativity and human behavior in social contexts, how people develop patterns of thought and action, and how the cognitive sciences can improve sociological theory and research. His dissertation, The Embodied Dimensions of Creativity, examines how improvisational theatre troupes collaboratively create new jokes, characters, stories, and scenes in real-time, drawing on interview and observational data with experienced improvisers from the Toronto improv scene. From this data, He develops an account of how creativity emerges out of interactions between cognitive processes, corporeal and material states and conditions, and the social and cultural environment. His research is published in Sociological Science, Poetics, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociological Forum, and Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour.
Dissertation Title: The Embodied Dimensions of Creativity
Dissertation Committee: Vanina Leschziner (Chair), Dan Silver, Ann Mullen