- In order to protect the participants’ anonymity, I do not specify the
years. Likewise, I have altered certain identifying details in some respondents’
answers to interview questions in order to ensure the anonymity of all panel-
ists and applicants. - This approach contrasts that provided in Weinberg (1963), which nor-
matively defines criteria (such as social and technical utility) that should be
used to assess the value of a scientific endeavor. - I did not aim to establish whether respondents’ accounts of their ac-
tions corresponded to their observed behavior. Instead, I analyzed their repre-
sentations of their behavior, together with statements about the quality of
scholarship, as part of their broader construction of excellence. I also consider
what they told me in the context of the interview a performative action or a
speech act. - For details see Lamont (1992, appendix 3); and Lamont (2000, intro-
duction). - This contrast between attitudes and beliefs and meaning is developed
in White (2007). - Brenneis (1999).
- The psychological benefits that are conferred by the awards are empha-
sized by recipients of the women’s studies dissertation grants who were inter-
viewed in Kessler-Harris, Swerdlow, and Rovi (1995). - On the role of third parties in the production of status, see Sauder
(2006). - My unpublished dissertation (written in French) concerned rapid
shifts in disciplinary prestige across the social sciences and the humanities.
I also have studied the intellectual and institutional conditions behind the
success of theories and have compared the role and social position of cul-
tural specialists, intellectuals, and sociologists in France and the United States
(Lamont 1987; Lamont and Witten 1989; Lamont and Wuthnow 1990). Re-
cent coauthored articles have concerned the criteria of excellence at work
in fellowship competitions in American higher education: I have analyzed
how prize-winning students define personal and academic excellence—see
Lamont, Kaufman, and Moody (2000)—and changes in criteria of excel-
lence used in letters of recommendation written between 1950–1955 and
1968–1972; see Tsay et al. (2003). These works contribute to my long-term in-
terest in the study of boundary formation—e.g., Lamont and Molnár (2002);
Pachucki, Pendergrass, and Lamont (2007); Wimmer and Lamont (2006). - Merton (1972).
Notes to Pages 13–16 / 263