Draft:Stephen Vaisey

• Comment: I simplified the writing quite a bit and addressed the reviewer comments. TKeskinturk (talk) 09:03, 6 August 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: Unsubstantiated claims throughtout, e.g., stating an article is "widely cited" but just linking to the article. Sources do not demonstrate prong 1 of WP:PROF as supposed by drafter. Sulfurboy (talk) 02:44, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: Thank you for the review. I've addressed the points and would ask that notability be reconsidered under WP:PROF rather than WP:NBLP. As an academic, Vaisey is most naturally assessed under the former, which does not require significant coverage of the person. I believe he meets Criterion 1 (significant impact in his scholarly discipline). I have also pruned primary-source claims per point 2, and added categories and a See also section per points 3–4. TKeskinturk (talk) 23:53, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: 1. To pass WP:NBLP, an article must have multiple reliable, secondary, independent sources with WP:SIGCOV of the subject. Lizardo 2016 and Cerulo 2021 substantially discuss Vaisey's intellectual work, but not Vaisey themselves. JHU Newsletter discusses Vaisey substantially, but is not independent. Current draft fails WP:GOLDENRULE. 2. Many, many sources are WP:PRIMARY citations to Vaisey's work. These are only acceptable for uncontroversial claims, such as sourcing a quote from Vaisey's intellectual work. All other substantial claims without a WP:SECONDARY source should be removed. 3. Please add Help:Categories. 4. Please add MOS:SEEALSO section. CopyleftEverything (talk) 07:33, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. TKeskinturk (talk) 15:04, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

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Stephen Vaisey
Born	1976 (age 49–50)
Education	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Awards	Theory Prize, ASA Theory Section (2011) Clifford Geertz Prize, ASA Culture Section (2021)
Scientific career
Fields	Sociology
Institutions	Duke University
Doctoral advisor	Christian Smith

Stephen Vaisey is an American sociologist and professor of sociology and political science at Duke University and co-director of the Worldview Lab at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. As of 2026, Vaisey is co-editor-in-chief of Sociological Science, an open-access sociology journal that began publishing in 2014 and has since hosted an associated conference.

Research

Vaisey's research lies at the intersection of cultural sociology and cognitive science. In a 2009 article in the American Journal of Sociology, Vaisey proposed a dual-process model of culture that integrated discursive and practical modes of culture and cognition. In 2011, the article received the Theory Prize from the American Sociological Association's Theory Section. In a 2016 article in Sociological Theory, Omar Lizardo and colleagues surveyed 174 peer-reviewed articles citing the paper and found sustained engagement across both applications and critiques of the dual-process idea. Reviewing the field in the Annual Review of Sociology in 2021, Karen Cerulo, Vanina Leschziner, and Hana Shepherd wrote that Vaisey's "dual process model has dominated the sociological literature."

His 2020 American Sociological Review article on measuring stability and change in personal culture, co-authored with Kevin Kiley, received the 2021 Clifford Geertz Prize for best article from the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Culture Section. Vaisey also directed the Measuring Morality project, which the Association of Religion Data Archives described as a study that would "help define what the moral divisions in the United States are, and the complex sources of those differences."

Selected publications

• Kiley, Kevin, and Stephen Vaisey. 2020. "Measuring Stability and Change in Personal Culture Using Panel Data." American Sociological Review 85(3):477–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420921538
• Boutyline, Andrei, and Stephen Vaisey. 2017. "Belief Network Analysis: A Relational Approach to Understanding the Structure of Attitudes." American Journal of Sociology 122(5):1371–1447. https://doi.org/10.1086/691274
• Hitlin, Steven, and Stephen Vaisey. 2013. "The New Sociology of Morality." Annual Review of Sociology 39:51–68. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145628
• Vaisey, Stephen. 2010. "What People Want: Poverty, Aspirations, and Educational Attainment." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 629:75–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716209357146
• Vaisey, Stephen. 2009. "Motivation and Justification: A Dual-Process Model of Culture in Action." American Journal of Sociology 114(6):1675–715. https://doi.org/10.1086/597179
• Vaisey, Stephen. 2007. "Structure, Culture, and Community: The Search for Belonging in 50 Urban Communes." American Sociological Review 72(6):851–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240707200601

See also

• Sociology of culture
• Sociological Science

References

Category:Living people Category:American sociologists Category:Duke University faculty Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Category:Cultural sociologists