Background
Pierce Dignam is a sociologist who studies the intersection of social movements, masculinity, collective identity and politics in the digital age. His work has focused on the social movement dynamics of male-supremacist spaces on Reddit, the Trump campaign’s working-class appeals and Trump supporters' cultural understandings of masculinity and anti-establishment politics. He has also investigated how online news comment sections work to maintain a connection to political narratives over time for their users.
His research has been published in Race, Gender and Class, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Social Currents and Men and Masculinities. He is also a co-founder of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, a feminist organization devoted to analyzing the global rise of male supremacist movements, and he has worked with non-profit organizations to perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses of unique datasets related to contemporary social problems.
Publications:
2021: Dignam, Pierce, Douglas Schrock, Kristen Erichsen, and Benjamin Dowd-Arrow. 2021. “Valorizing Trump’s Masculine Self: Constructing Political Allegiance during the 2016 Presidential Election.” Men and Masculinities, 24(3): 367-392.
2020: Erichsen, Kristen, Douglas Schrock, Pierce Dignam, and Benjamin Dowd-Arrow. 2020. “Bitchifying Hillary: Trump Supporters’ Vilification of Clinton during the 2016 Presidential Election.” Social Currents, 7(6):526-542.
2019: Dignam, Pierce, and Deana Rohlinger. 2019. “Misogynistic Men Online: How “The Red Pill” Helped Elect Trump.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2019.
2019: Rohlinger, Deana, Jenny Davis, Pierce Dignam and Cynthia Williams. 2019. “Dynamic Perspectives on Media and Information Technologies.” Information, Communication and Society 22(5) 583-589.
2018: Schrock, Douglas, Alexander Adams, Ryan Bausback, Pierce Dignam, Benjamin Dowd-Arrow, Kristen Erichsen and Haley Gentile. 2018. “Trumping the Establishment: Anti-Establishment Theatrics and Resonance in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Race, Gender and Class 25(3/4):7-26.
2017: Schrock, Douglas, Benjamin Dowd-Arrow, Kristen Erichsen, Haley Gentile and Pierce Dignam. 2017. “The Emotional Politics of Making America Great Again: Trump's Working Class Appeals.” The Journal of Working-Class Studies 2475-4765. 2. 5-22.
Education
- PhD, Sociology, Florida State University
- M.S, Sociology, Florida State University
- B.A., Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of South Florida
Research Interests
- Collective behavior and social movements
- Digital sociology
- Masculinity
- Political sociology
- Qualitative research methods
