The Elementary Forms of Religious Life is usually associated with totemic religion in faraway places, but in writing it, Durkheim had in mind a social world much closer to hand in the France of his time. Sociologist Karen Fields will adapt Durkheim’s methodology to explore curious features of that world and our own. Karen Fields borrows from the method of Emile Durkheim in her research exploring the invisible ontology of the social world. Her publications include a re-translation of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1995), and Racecraft (with Barbara J. Fields, forthcoming).

Moderated by Emmanuelle Saada, Professor of French History and Director of the Center for French and Francophone Studies.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia Maison Française, Department of History, and Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life