Kristin Lawler, PhD
Professor of Sociology
PhD, City University of New York
BA, The Catholic University of America
[email protected]
Founders Hall 428
Areas of Interest
- Social Theory
- The Labor Movement
- Popular Culture
Professor Lawler completed her doctoral studies at the City University of New York and joined the University of Mount Saint Vincent in 2008. Her first book, The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism, was published by Routledge in 2011, and her most recent book, co-edited with Michael Roberts and David Cline, entitled Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding was published in 2024 by San Diego State University Press. She also co-edited Live Theory: the Aronowitz Reader with Peter Bratsis, Bruno Gulli, and Michael Pelias; it was published by Eris Press in 2024. She is the co-editor of a 2025 special issue of the journal Sport in Society on surfing and skateboarding, in which her newest article was published. Her work appears in numerous edited collections, including Feminism and the Early Frankfurt School; Back to the 30s? Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy; Nietzsche and Critical Social Theory; Class: The Anthology; Living with Class; Southern California Bohemias; and The Critical Surf Studies Reader. She is a contributing member of the editorial board of the journal, Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, where her work has also been published, and a founding member of the editorial board of the new journal Board Cultures: the International Journal of Surfing and Skateboarding Studies. She is a member of the board of directors of the Institute for the Radical Imagination, a founding member of the Surf and Skate Studies Collaborative at San Diego State University, and a member of the affiliated faculty of the Strother School of Radical Attention.
Professional Affiliations
- Member, Board of Directors, Institute for the Radical Imagination
- Affiliated Faculty, Strother School of Radical Attention
- Affiliated Faculty, Surf and Skate Studies Collaborative, San Diego State University
- Editorial Collective member, Board Cultures: the International Journal of Surfing and Skateboarding Studies
- Editorial Board member, Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination
Bratsis Peter, Gulli Bruno, Lawler Kristin, and Pelias Michael, eds. (2024) Live Theory: The Aronowitz Reader, New York: Eris Press/Columbia University Press.
Cline David, Lawler Kristin, and Roberts Michael, eds. (2024) Roll and Flow: the Cultural Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding, San Diego: San Diego State University Press.
Lawler Kristin (2011) The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism. New York: Routledge.
Articles and Book Chapters
Lawler, Kristin, and Michael James Roberts (2025, forthcoming). “Heroic Idleness: Class Matters in the History of Surfing,” Sport in Society, Volume 28, Issue 2.
Lawler, Kristin (2024), “Interventions in the Social Construction of Space and Time: What’s at Stake in the Roll and Flow of Skateboarding and Surfing,” with Michael James Roberts, in Roll and Flow: the Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing.San Diego: San Diego State University Press.
Lawler, Kristin (2024) “Heroic Idleness: The Anti-Work Ethic in Surfer-Wobbly Countercultures,” with Michael James Roberts, in Roll and Flow: the Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing. San Diego: San Diego State University Press.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Sex, Hope, and Rock and Roll: Radical Feminism and the Freudian Left”, in Feminism and the Early Frankfurt School, Christine A. Payne and Jeremiah Morelock, eds. New York: Brill.
Lawler, Kristin (2020) “Radical America: the 1930s and the Politics of Storytelling,” in Back to the 30s?: Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy, Susan Falls, Taylor C. Nelms, Jeremy Rayner, and George Souvlis, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Conference Presentations
Lawler, Kristin (2024) “The Crisis in Historical Materialism,” presentation at Historical Materialism: Rethinking Rationalities and Irrationalities Within Times of Crisis and Radical Transformations conference, Istanbul, Turkey, Kadir Has University, April 4.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Surfing, Capitalism, and the Refusal of Work.” Invited talk at University of California, Santa Cruz, Center for Cultural Studies, April 19.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Imaterial and Flanantes: Brazilian Skateboarding and Filmmaking Cultures,” Plenary session at The Stoke Sessions: an International Conference on the Culture, History, and Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding, San Diego State University, April 20 – 23.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Flow: Beyond Conventional Psychological Interpretations of the Surfing Experience.” Regular session presentation at “The Stoke Sessions: an International Conference on the Culture, History, and Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding,” San Diego State University, April 20-23.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Heroic Idleness: the Antiwork Ethic in Surfer-Wobbly Countercultures.” Regular session presentation at “The Stoke Sessions: an International Conference on the Culture, History, and Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding,” San Diego State University, April 20 – 23.
Lawler, Kristin (2023) “Labor and Power.” Presentation at “The Singularity of Stanley Aronowitz” conference, Graduate Center, CUNY, March 3.
Lawler, Kristin (2022) “Class Struggle, Sabotage, and the Refusal of Work,” Presentation at Historical Materialism Nineteenth Annual Conference – Facing the Abyss: An Epoch of War and Permanent Counterrevolution conference, School of Oriental and African Studies, London,10th-13th November.