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William Finlay

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Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus

Dr. William Finlay is a Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Georgia, where he taught at the University of Georgia from 1988 until 2022. Prior to that he taught at the University of Iowa. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town. His research areas include the workplace, organizations, and economic sociology.and he has carried out studies of longshore workers in California, electronics and textile workers in Georgia, medical-school faculty and residents, college instructors and students, executive recruiters, and South African wine producers, importers, and distributors. 

Education:
  • Ph.D., Sociology, Northwestern University, 1983
  • M.A., Sociology, Northwestern University, 1979
  •  (Hons., First Class), University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1976
  • B.Soc.Sc., University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1975
Selected Publications:
  • Coverdill, James E. and William Finlay. 2017.  High Tech and High Touch: Headhunting, Technology, and Economic Transformation.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Vallas, Steven P., William Finlay, and Amy S. Wharton. 2009. The Sociology of Work: Structures and Inequalities. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Finlay, William and James E. Coverdill. 2002. Headhunters: Matchmaking in the Labor Market. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (Paperback edition with a new afterword published in 2007)
  • Finlay, William. 1988. Work on the Waterfront : Worker Power and Technological Change in a West Coast Port. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Of Note:
  • 2017 Study Abroad Award, Office of International Education
  • 2015 Regents' Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • 2014 Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Research Fellowship
  • 2014 Lothar Tresp Outstanding Honors Professor Award
  • 2012 Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor
  • 2011 Lothar Tresp Oustanding Honors Professor Award
  • 1999-2002 General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia
  • 1995 Special Sandy Beaver Teaching Award, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia
  • 1990 EGOS Award from the Organizations and Occupations Section of the American Sociological Association for the book, Work on the Waterfront: Worker Power and Technological Change in a West Coast Port.
Articles Featuring William Finlay

William Finlay has been selected as the recipient of  UGA's Office of International Education Study Abroad Award.  He is being recognized for his major contributions to study abroad at UGA over the past 25…

Events featuring William Finlay
MLC Reading Room

This interactive session is designed for instructors who want to transcend the traditional teacher-centered model of learning but are not quite ready to embrace the uncertainty of the “flipped classroom” model.  This presentation addresses one option for those instructors who fall somewhere between the two instructional models.  …

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