Jeff Goodwin

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Jeffrey Roger Goodwin (born January 28, 1958) is a sociology professor at New York University. He studies social movements, political violence, revolutions, and how emotions affect politics. His best-known book is No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991, and he has written about W. E. B. Du Bois and the black radical tradition in Black Marxism.

Goodwin was born in Hollywood, Florida, and grew up in Fort Lauderdale. His parents were public school teachers. He finished Nova High School in 1976 and went on to Harvard University, where he earned a BA in social studies in 1980 (magna cum laude), followed by an MA and a PhD in sociology in 1988. His dissertation was chaired by Theda Skocpol.

He began his career at Northwestern University (1989–1991) and then moved to NYU in 1991, where he progressed from assistant to full professor. He spent a year as a visiting fellow at the European University Institute in 2009. Goodwin has held leadership roles in the American Sociological Association and coedited the journal Contexts from 2004 to 2007.

Goodwin has published extensively with James M. Jasper, including work that challenges certain theories of social movements and several edited volumes on the subject. He is also known for his writings on revolutions and terrorism. Politically, he has been a critic of U.S. support for human rights abuses abroad and is a longtime member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In 2011 he joined a NYU statement calling for disinvestment from companies doing business in Israel, drawing criticism from a congressman.