Erik Larson

Erik Larson is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Sociology Department at Macalester College, where he also co-directs the Legal Studies Program.

His educational credentials include:

• BA from Hamline University (1992)
• MA from University of Minnesota (1997)
• PhD from University of Minnesota (2004)

Larson's research operates at the intersection of Sociology of Law, Economic Sociology, and Political Sociology, emphasizing comparative-historical analysis of how global and national forces reshape legal, economic, and political institutions. His fieldwork spans Fiji, China, Ghana, Guatemala, Iceland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, and Taiwan, with core projects examining rule of law after coups, indigenous rights movements, anti-corruption as market moralization, stock exchange development, and economic affirmative action policies.

He integrates undergraduate students into research collaborations, notably on Ainu rights in Japan, indigenous bilingual education in Guatemala, and Minnesota school performance factors.