[IMCnetwork] The passing of James C. Scott

[Nick Cheesman]

Dear IMC listserv

As you may have heard, Prof James C Scott (Yale University) passed away last Friday after an extended illness, aged 87.

Jim, as he was known among friends and colleagues, had a huge effect on the conduct of interpretive political and social science, not only in the US but around the world. He was in addition an immensely important scholar for those of us working in Southeast Asia who were lucky enough to know him and benefit from his mentorship.

The ANU awarded Jim an honorary doctorate last year but for health reasons he had to cancel his trip to receive the degree in person. Consequently, unfortunately we weren’t able to organise any IMC events with him, as I had hoped and planned at the time.

There will be many tributes for Jim in coming days and weeks, and we will plan to hold a fitting event on campus to remember him and celebrate his legacy.

In the meantime I invite you to have a look at two markers of recognition from when he was with us, the first from the Social Science Research Council when he was awarded the Albert Hirschman Prize in 2020 (see https://www.ssrc.org/programs/council-initiatives/the-albert-o-hirschman-prize/2020-james-c-scott/), and the second from APSA’s Interpretive Methodologies and Methods section when it chose Jim for its 2013 Grain of Sand award (see https://connect.apsanet.org/interpretationandmethod/the-grain-of-sand-award/).

Though ill qualified to to do so, I also had the chance to discuss his Against the Grain on the New Books in Interpretive Political and Social Science podcast: https://newbooksnetwork.com/james-c-scott-against-the-grain-a-deep-history-of-the-earliest-states-yale-up-2017/

With sorrow but deep gratitude to Jim for his contributions to interpretive scholarship and for his generosity of spirit,

Nick


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