James C. Scott, Sterling Professor Emeritus, Political Science; Acting Director, Agrarian Studies; Professor Emeritus, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Anthropology and Institute for Social and Policy Studies passed peacefully in his home in Durham, CT on Friday, July 19, 2024.
Jim, who returned to Yale in 1976, was at the time of his death the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science as well as a professor of Anthropology. He was the founding director of the Agrarian Studies Center at Yale University, an experimental, interdisciplinary effort to reshape how a new generation of scholars understands rural life and society. He was described in the 2012 New York Times article “The Professor Who Learns From Peasants” as the “unofficial founder of the field of “resistance studies,” in which his book “Weapons of the Weak” (1985), a study of peasant resistance based on fieldwork in a Malaysian village, is a kind of Bible”.
On August 27, 2021 the Berkeley Library Oral History Project at the University of California announced the release of the Yale Agrarian Studies Oral History Project, a two-part series featuring the life history of James C. Scott, and shorter interviews with over a dozen affiliates of the Yale Agrarian Studies Program. He was awarded the 2020 Albert O. Hirschman Prize, the Social Science Research Council’s highest honor. The Hirschman Price recognizes excellence in social and behavioral science in the tradition of Albert O. Hirschman’s pioneering research.
Jim was slated to receive the Wilbur Cross award this fall, the highest honor among our graduate alums. He was excited to participate in the celebration. We also had the pleasure of gathering this spring to remember his many and ongoing scholarly achievements, appropriately documented in this movie available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-IgJJW5Fkc.
Jim’s family has asked that anyone wishing to share remembrances or condolences can reach them at the below email addresses:
Aaron Scott ascott_md@yahoo.com
Mia Scott mialscott@gmail.com
Noah Scott nohascott@yahoo.com
Members of the community are invited to share their memories, photos, stories, and thoughts with Jim’s family and friends via KudoBoard. The Agrarian Studies memorial page can be found here.