Natalia Ruiz-Junco

Education

About Me

Dr. Natalia Ruiz-Junco is a sociologist who specializes in social theory, social psychology, sociology of emotions, social movements, and qualitative methodology. Her numerous publications in these areas examine the topics of self, identity, emotion/affect, empathy, and social interaction. She has a long-standing interest in interpretive and pragmatist theories. She is co-editor of Updating Charles H. Cooley: Contemporary Perspectives on a Sociological Classic (Routledge, 2019), the Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism (Routledge, 2021) and People, Technology, and Social Organization: Interactionist Studies of Everyday Life (Routledge, 2024). She is an editorial board member of the journals The American Sociologist, and Sociological Theory. She is past Vice President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. At Auburn University, she is part of the Leadership Committee of the Gulf Scholars Program, and teaches the Core Class, which focuses on sustainability and examines the interrelationships between nature, self, and society.

Research Interests

social theory, social psychology, social interaction, sociology of emotions, affect, health and sustainability, social movements, qualitative methodology

Publications

• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, and Javiera Garcia-Meneses. “Rethinking Clinical Empathy: The Relevance of Empathy Affect in Child Welfare Work in Chile” International Social Work
• vom Lehn, Dirk, William Gibson, and Natalia Ruiz-Junco (eds). 2024. People, Technology, and Social Organization: Interactionist Studies of Everyday Life. London and New York: Routledge.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2024. “Empathy: Putting Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes.” In Jacobsen, Michael Hviid (ed). The Emotionality of Social Life. London and New York: Routledge.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, Daniel Morrison, and Patrick McGinty. 2023. “Interactionism and Methodological Individualism: Affinities and Critical Issues.” In Palgrave Handbook of Methodological Individualism, edited by Nathalie Bulle and Francesco Di Iorio.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz. 2023. “W. E. B. Du Bois as Interactionist: Reflections on the Canonical Incorporation of a Marginalized Scholar.” Symbolic Interaction
• vom Lehn, Dirk, Natalia Ruiz-Junco, and William Gibson (eds). 2021. The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism. London and New York: Routledge.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2021. “Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Self.” Pp. 543-557. In Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory, edited by Seth Abrutyn and Omar Lizardo. Springer Nature.
• Brossard, Baptiste, and Natalia Ruiz-Junco. 2020. “On the Shoulders of Citers: Notes on the Organization of Intellectual Deference.” The Sociological Quarterly
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, and Daniel R. Morrison. 2019. “Empathy as Care: The Model of Palliative Medicine.” Society
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, and Baptiste Brossard (eds). 2019. Updating Charles H. Cooley: Contemporary Perspectives on a Sociological Classic. London and New York: Routledge.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia, and Baptiste Brossard. 2019. “Cooley and the Sociological Canon: An Enigmatic Case.” In Updating Charles H. Cooley: Contemporary Perspectives on a Sociological Classic, edited by N. Ruiz-Junco and B. Brossard.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2017. “Advancing the Sociology of Empathy: A Proposal” Symbolic Interaction
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2016. “In Search of Lost Mead” Contemporary Sociology
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2016. “The Persistence of the Power Deficit? Advancing Power Premises in Contemporary Interactionist Theory.” Studies in Symbolic Interaction
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia and Scott Hunt. 2016. “Identity” In Protest Cultures: A Companion. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2013. “Feeling Social Movements: Theoretical Contributions to Social Movement Research on Emotions” Sociology Compass
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2011. “Losing Neutrality in Your Everyday Life:” Framing Experience and Activist Identity Construction in the Spanish Environmental Movement” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz. 2011. “Autoethnography: The Sociological through the Personal.” In New Directions in Sociology: Essays on Theory and Methodology in the 21st Century edited by Ieva Zake and Michael DeCesare. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers.
• Ruiz-Junco, Natalia. 2011. “Stranger to You and Stranger to Myself? Theorizing Self-estrangement.” Current Perspectives in Social Theory