John Torpey

John Torpey is Presidential Professor of Sociology and History and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He previously taught at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Irvine, and has held fellowships from the European University Institute (Florence) and the Center for European Studies, Harvard University. He got his BA at Amherst College and MA and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He never imagined he would do any of these things when finishing high school in Toms River, New Jersey, where he focused on playing hockey and tennis and lifeguarding at the beach.