David C. Sorge

David Sorge is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022.

Dr. Sorge is a scholar of violence, ethnic conflict, and social movements, employing qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods in his research. His work is situated at the intersection of sociology and conflict resolution, contributing to the new sociology of violence that views violence as situationally emergent, organizationally structured, and often motivated by moral concerns.

His research examines the emotional dynamics underlying riot and pogrom-like collective violence events, patterns of collective violence diffusion, and de-escalation of potentially violent situations.

Dr. Sorge's research agenda aims to uncover pathways for combating violence non-violently by closely examining micro-level emotional and interactional processes. Planned future projects include studies of polarization, de-escalation of police-crowd confrontations, and building a public database of social movement events in India.

At Bryn Mawr College, Dr. Sorge teaches courses on the sociology of violence, emotions, interaction, criminal justice, social movements, globalization, and sociological theory. His teaching emphasizes active, student-centered, community-based learning principles to develop empathy and self-reflection related to experiences of violence and marginalization.

Prior to joining Bryn Mawr, Dr. Sorge developed and taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been published in Social Science Research and presented at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association and other major conferences.