About David Aday

Professor of Sociology and Community Studies
Reves Fellow for International Service Learning, 2008-2010
Academic Director of Students for Medical Outreach and Sustainability (SOMOS, Paraiso, Dominican Republic) and Medical Aid Nicaragua: Outreach Scholarship (MANOS) .
B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Sociology

My teaching and research interests focused on community, the ways in which people live and work together to solve collective problems. This interest emerged over a career of interests in crime, regulatory arrangements and theory, and a deep distrust of hierarchical and coercive strategies of “helping” and “managing” in human affairs. My work in the Dominican Republic and in Nicaragua represented a shift from issues of security and social control to those of health and well-being. I see the two as inherently related and believe that effective communities must find ways to solve these and other persistent and thorny problems. Students taught me much over the years — not the least, the need to continue to learn and to press forward to create and use knowledge. Students are responsible directly for my work in community health and for my involvement in the two most exciting projects (SOMOS and SHC) of my now lengthy career.