A Road Worth Taking: Sociology as a Vocation and the Legacy of Caroll D. Clark

Abstract

The meaning of sociology as a vocation, as seen through the career of Carroll D. Clark, is the focus of this paper. As the chairperson of the Department of Sociology at the University of Kansas for over three decades, Clark had an extraordinary influence on the shape of the department at Kansas and the discipline in the Midwest. Through an examination of his career at Kansas, it is shown that sociology for Clark was indeed a calling, a calling to which he devoted passionate enthusiasm and unwavering commitment. Also explored is Clark's role as a public intellectual.