Michael W. Raphael is a sociologist, professor, and author specializing in cognitive sociology. He received his BS in sociology and MS in criminal justice from Northeastern University. In 2019, he completed his MPhil in sociology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York where he is now a doctoral candidate in sociology.
As a cognitive sociologist, Raphael is interested in the role of politics and culture in social organization and its effects on cognition and identity. Specifically, he studies intelligibility and its relationship to tacit knowledge in the development of competence and expertise. Michael explores these socio-cognitive aspects in a wide range of empirical contexts, ranging from everyday life to specific manifestations in professional work – in areas such as chess, policing, law, medicine, and education. This permits him to study how cognitive sociology intersects with other specialized areas of sociology, such as medical sociology and criminology. He began this research program at Northeastern by analyzing factors constraining the development of interpersonal expertise for the implementation of community policing.
His dissertation, “The Politics of Expertise in Professional Education: Cognitive Style and Metaphor in the Problem-Based Learning of Decision Making” investigates the politics of culture & cognition in the relationship between the development of legal expertise and the demands of the legal profession.
This multi-method research program has earned grants and publications. His 231-volume Kindle series, “ReViewing Chess” (2010-2011), was an experiment in the development of expertise. “Phenomenological Theories of Crime” (Oxford Bibliographies, 2012), co-authored with Peter K. Manning, demonstrated how cognitive sociology challenges traditional criminological explanations. Raphael’s “Cognitive Sociology” (Oxford Bibliographies, 2017) demonstrated five ideal types of how social theory understands cognition.
He teaches courses in sociology, criminology, and anthropology across campuses of the City University of New York.
In his free time, he enjoys playing chess, creating fine art photography and the pursuit of other artistic endeavors.