Loïc Wacquant

Loïc J. D. Wacquant (; born 1960) is a French sociologist specializing in urban sociology, urban poverty, racial inequality, the body, social theory and ethnography.

Wacquant is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Law and Society, the Global Metropolitan Studies Program, the Institute of Governmental Studies, and the Center for Ethnographic Research. He is also a research associate at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique (CESSP) in Paris and an organizer of the Ethnographic Café.

Wacquant's research has been recognized with several awards. He was elected a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows for the term 1990–1993. In 1997, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2006, he was granted an Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship. Wacquant won the Lewis A. Coser Award of the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association in 2009.

Wacquant is the only sociologist of note to have competed in the Chicago Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament. The then 29-year-old 5-foot-8¹⁄₂ Frenchman, nicknamed “Busy Louie” and weighing in at 137 lb, suffered a decision loss in a light-welterweight contest at Saint Andrew’s Gym in 1990. Wacquant received a standing eight count in the first round. Provided by Wikipedia