About

Terry McDonnell is a professor of sociology and the department chair and a concurrent faculty member of the Keough School of Global Affairs. He is a cultural sociologist (Ph.D. 2009, Northwestern University) who studies objects and media in everyday life. McDonnell has been a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow since 2011.

McDonnell’s book, Best Laid Plans: Cultural Entropy and the Unraveling of AIDS Media Campaigns (University of Chicago Press) develops the idea of ‘cultural entropy’ to explain how best practices and evidence-based HIV/AIDS media campaigns in Accra, Ghana often fail to change peoples’ belief and behavior. He finds that as modernization and globalization makes culture more complex, the chances for misinterpretation increase and international health NGOs find it difficult to control their messages. This book won an honorable mention for the Sociology of Development's Best Book Award. His research has been published in numerous sociological journals including The American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Theory, Qualitative Sociology, Theory and Society, and Poetics.

 

ISP Advisee:
Audriana Palacios

Thematic Interests

Culture and media; HIV/AIDS and public health; social movements; gender and sexuality; urban studies, theory, methods

Research Sub-Discipline
Countries
Regions
Research Tags

Selected Publications

Books

Journal Articles

Other Accomplishments & Recognitions
  • Kellogg Institute's Undergraduate Mentoring Award 2020-21
  • Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching - 2018-19
Mon, Aug 30, 2021
Kellogg Undergraduate Student Programs Open House
Special Event
Ellis Adjei Adams, Edward (Ted) Beatty, Paolo G. Carozza, Michael Coppedge, Abby Córdova, Diane Desierto, Eva Dziadula, Anne Foley, Mariah Horvath, Erin Metz McDonnell, Terence McDonnell, Paul Perrin, Patrizio Piraino, Aníbal Pérez-Liñán