Noel T. Byrne, Ph.D.

I am currently in the process of developing a "folk history" of Sonoma State University.  My other research concerns include both the sociology of time (with particular attention to the temporal organization of behavior in public places), and the sociology of moral orders.  I am also in the process of developing theory and research in the sociology of evil.

Preceded by quite a few years of the “prep education” cited above (eventually melded with years of night school at SRJC), my formal relation to Sonoma State dates back to January 1969 when I began my full time (undergraduate) studies in sociology at this institution. After proceeding to my post-grad work at Rutgers, I taught at all-female, upper-SES Douglass College of Rutgers in New Jersey, and then at all-male, lower-SES Soledad prison in California. Having accepted a position at Sonoma State more than three decades ago, beginning with the Sociology Department in 1978, I remain among the fortunate few who were permitted to come home again. The depredations of President Diamondopoulos shortly after my return to Sonoma State required a change in departmental affiliation for me, just as for so many others at that time. Eventually tenured in the SSU Business School, I also served as a paid management and marketing consultant to local organizations. With relief and gratitude, I came back home to the Department of Sociology in 1994.