Ritchie Savage

Ritchie Savage is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Social Work at Bradley University within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, specializing in populism and political discourse analysis.

His research interests include:

• Populism
• Political Discourse
• Social and Political Theory
• Cultural Sociology
• Social Movements
• Structuralism
• Psychoanalysis

Savage's scholarly work examines symbolic structures in political movements across Venezuela and the United States, with case studies on Acción Democrática, McCarthyism, Chavismo, and the Tea Party. His publications reveal evolving patterns in populist identity formation and institutionalization, highlighting cross-national parallels in anti-leftist rhetoric and discourse strategies. Current projects extend this analysis to imperialism and empire dynamics through ongoing articles and a forthcoming book manuscript.

He teaches core sociology courses including The Sociological Perspective (SOC 100), The Sociology of Globalization (SOC 326), and People, Power, Politics (SOC 345), integrating his research on political identity and global movements into classroom instruction.