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Department of Sociology

Sean Hier

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Professor

Sociology

Contact:
Office: COR A311 250-853-3771
Credentials:
PhD (McMaster)
Area of expertise:
Moral panics and social problems

Research

Professor Hier’s research focuses on moral panics, social problems, claims-making, media representations of crime and serial killing. He is currently researching serial murder in Canada, victim framing in serial murder cases and true crime genres.

Student supervision

Professor Hier is especially keen to provide honours and graduate supervision on the following topics. If you are a prospective student interested in exploring research in one of the general areas listed below, please reach out to him.

  • moral panics
  • moral regulation
  • serial killing (in and beyond Canada)
  • true crime genres
  • victim framing in violent crime cases
  • media representations of social problems
  • the social construction of social problems
  • surveillance and social problems
  • pandemic/infectious disease representations

Publications

Hier, Sean P., ed. 2011. Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety. London: Routledge.

Hier, Sean P. 2010. Panoptic Dreams: Streetscape Video Surveillance in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg, eds. 2009. Surveillance: Power, Problems and Politics. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Hier, Sean P., Dan Lett and Singh Bolaria, eds. 2009. Racism and Justice: Critical Dialogue on the Politics of Identity, Inequality and Change. Halifax: Fernwood.

Hier, Sean P. and B. Singh Bolaria, eds. 2007. Race and Racism in 21st-Century Canada: Continuity, Complexity, and Change. Peterborough: Broadview Press (now University of Toronto Press).

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg, eds., 2007. The Surveillance Studies Reader. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill/Open University Press.

Hier, Sean P. and B. Singh Bolaria, eds. 2006. Identity and Belonging: Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Canadian Society. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.

Hier, Sean P., ed. 2005. Contemporary Sociological Thought: Themes and Theories. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.

Hier, Sean P. 2024. “Rethinking the problem of disproportion: overreaction, underreaction and normativism in moral panic studies.” The American Sociologist.

Hier Sean P. 2023. “Moral panic studies, normative reductionism and the problem of paradigmatic rigidity.” The American Sociologist, 54: 361-338.

Hier Sean P. 2023. “Suppressing the crisis: moral panics, emerging infectious diseases and the COVID conjuncture." Canadian Journal of Communication, 48, 2: 205-222.

Hier, Sean P. 2023. “Narrating the crisis: moral regulation, overlapping responsibilities and COVID-19.” Current Sociology, Current Sociology, 71(6): 1082-1099

Hier, Sean P. 2021. “A reverse moral panic? Implicatory denial and pre-crisis COVID-19 risk communication in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Communication, 46, 3.

Hier, Sean P. 2019. "Almost famous: Peter Woodstock, media framing and obscurity in the cultural construction of a serial killer." Crime, Media, Culture.

Hier, Sean P. 2019. "Monumental panic: reconciliation, moral regulation and the polarizing politics of the past." Critical Sociology.

Hier, Sean P. 2019. "Moral panic and the new neoliberal compromise." Current Sociology.

Hier, Sean P. 2019. "Social problems and the contextual compromise: subjectivity objectivity and knowledge in everyday life." Qualitative Sociology Review. October.

Hier, Sean P. 2018. "Moral panic and digital media logic: notes on a changing research agenda." Crime, Media, Culture. Published Online First

Hier, Sean P. 2017. "Good moral panics? Normative ambivalence, social reaction and coexisting responsiblities in everyday life." Current Sociology, 65,6:867-885.

Hier, Sean P. 2016. "Moral panic, moral regulation and the civilizing process." British Journal of Sociology. 67, 3: 414-434

Hier, Sean P. 2015. "The cultural politics of contemporary moral panic studies: reflections on a changing research agenda." Czech Sociological Review 51, 3: 362-73.

Hier, Sean P. and Kevin Walby. 2014. "Policy mutations, compliance myths and re-deployable special event public camera surveillance in Canada." Sociology. 48, 1: 150-166

Walby, Kevin and Sean P. Hier. 2013 "Business improvement associations and public area video surveillance in Canadian cities." Urban Studies 50, 10, 2012-2017.

Lett, Dan, Sean P. Hier and Kevin Walby. 2012. “Policy legitimacy, rhetorical politics and the evaluation of city-street video surveillance monitoring programs in Canada.” Canadian Review of Sociology 49(4): 328–349.

Smith, Andre, Jay Fiddler, Kevin Walby and Sean P. Hier. 2011. "Blood donation and institutional trust: risk, policy rhetoric and the men who have sex with men lifetime deferral policy in Canada." Canadian Review of Sociology. 48, 4:369-389.

Hier, Sean P. 2011 "Tightening the focus: moral panic, moral regulation and Liberal government.' British Journal of Sociology, 62, 3: 523-41.

Hier, Sean P., Dan Lett, Kevin Walby and Andre Smith. 2011. "Beyond folk devil resistance: linking moral panic and moral regulation." Criminology and Criminal Justice, 18, 3:261-76.

Hier, Sean P. and Kevin Walby. 2011. "Privacy pragmatism and streetscape video surveillance in Canada." International Sociology, 26, 6:844-61.

Lett, Dan, Sean P. Hier and Kevin Walby. 2010. "CCTV surveillance and the civic conversation: a study in public sociology." Canadian Journal of Sociology, 35, 3: 437-462.

Greenberg, Josh and Sean P. Hier. 2009. "CCTV surveillance and the poverty of media discourse." Canadian Journal of Communication 34, 3: 461-86.

Hier, Sean P. 2008. "Thinking beyond moral panic: risk, responsibility and the politics of moralization." Theoretical Criminology 12, 1: 173-190.

Hier, Sean P. 2008. "Transformative democracy in the age of second modernity: cosmopolitanization, communicative agency and the reflexive subject." New Media and Society 10, 1: 23-40.

Hier, Sean P., Walby, Kevin, Greenberg, Josh and Dan Lett. 2007. "Media, communication and the establishment of public camera surveillance programs in Canada." Media, Culture and Society, 29, 5: 727-751.

Hier, Sean P. and K. Walby. 2006. "Competing analytical paradigms in the sociological study of racism in Canada." Canadian Ethnic Studies, 26, 1: 83-104.

Walby, Kevin and Sean. P. Hier. 2005. "Risk technologies and the securitization of post-9/11citizenship: the case of national ID cards in Canada." Socialist Studies, 1, 2: 7-31.

Hier, Sean P. and David Lyon. 2004. "Surveillance, technology and the management of risk." Guest editors for International Sociology, 19, 2: 131-4.

Hier, Sean P. 2004. "Risky spaces and dangerous spaces: urban surveillance, social disorder and CCTV." Social and Legal Studies, 13, 4: 541-554.

Hier, Sean P. 2003. "Probing the surveillant assemblage: on the dialectics of surveillance practices as processes of social control." Surveillance and Society, 1, 3: 399-411.

Hier, Sean P. 2003. "Risk and panic in late modernity: implications of the converging sites of social anxiety." British Journal of Sociology, 54, 1: 3-20.

Hier, Sean P. 2002. "Conceptualizing moral panic through a moral economy of harm." Critical Sociology, 28, 3: 311-34.

Hier, Sean P. 2002. "Raves, risks and the ecstacy panic: a case study in the subversive nature of moral regulation." Canadian Journal of Sociology, 27, 1: 33-57.

Hier, Sean P. and Joshua Greenberg. 2002. "Constructing a discursive crisis: risk, problematization and illegal Chinese in Canada." Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25, 3: 490-513.

Hier, Sean P. and Candace Kemp. 2002. "Anthropological stranger: the intellectual trajectory of Hortense Powdermaker." Women's History Review, 11, 2: 253-271.

Hier, Sean P. 2001. "The forgotten architect: Cox, Wallerstein and world-system theory." Race and Class, 42, 3: 69-86.

Greenberg, Josh and Sean P. Hier 2001. "Crisis, mobilization and collective problematization: 'illegal' migrants and the Canadian news media." Journalism Studies, 2, 4: 563-583.

Hier, Sean P. 2000. "The contemporary structure of Canadian racial supremacism: networks, strategies and new technologies." Canadian Journal of Sociology, 25, 4: 471-494.

Hier, Sean P. 2018-9. "Beyond Harm." In Exclusion and Resistance. Halifax: Fernwood.

Hier, Sean P. 2018-9. "Digitally Mediated Moral Panics: On the Changing Nature of Claims-Making, Audience Engagement and Social Regulation".  In Exclusion and Resistance. Halifax: Fernwood.

Hier, Sean P. 2011. "The Focus of Moral Panic Studies." In S. Hier's Moral Panic Studies: Politics, Parameters and Possibilities. London: Routledge.

Hier, Sean P. 2011. "Accessing Information on Streetscape Video Surveillance in Canada." In K. Walby and M. Larsen's Brokering Access. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg. 2009. "The Politics of Surveillance: Power, Paradigms and the Field of Visibility." In S. Hier and J. Greenberg's Surveillance: Power, Problems and Politics. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. 14-32.

Hier, Sean P. 2009. "The Prospect for Post-Raciality." In S. Hier, D. Lett and B. Singh Bolaria's Racism and Justice: Dialogue on the Politics of Identity, Inequality and Change. Halifax: Fernwood. Pp. 9-12.

Hier, Sean P. and Dan Lett. 2009. "Paradoxes of Progress." In S. Hier, D. Lett and B. Singh Bolaria's Racism and Justice: Dialogue on the Politics of Identity, Inequality and Change. Halifax: Fernwood. Pp. 13-18.

Walby, Kevin and Sean P. Hier. 2009. "Securing Citizenship: Identity Cards, Secure Passports and Border Surveillance in Canada." In S. Maggnusson's Anti-Terrorism: Security and Insecurity after 9/11. Halifax: Fernwood. Pp. 125-138.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg. 2007. "Contemporary Surveillance Studies." In S. Hier and J. Greenberg's The Surveillance Studies Reader. Maidenhead, UK: McGraw Hill-Open University Press. Pp. 1-9.

Hier, Sean P. 2008. "Racism, Media and Analytical Balance." In J. Greenberg and C. Elliot's Communications in Question: Canadian Perspectives on Controversial Issues in Communication Studies. Toronto: Thompson-Nelson. Pp. 131-141.

Hier, Sean P. 2007. "The Status of Research on Race and Racism in 21st Century Canada." In S.P. Hier and B. Singh Bolaria's Race and Racism in 21st-Century Canada: Continuity, Complexity, and Change. Peterborough: Broadview Press now University of Toronto Press.. Pp.15-33.

Hier, Sean P. and B. Singh Bolaria. 2006. "Identities Without Guarantees." In S. Hier and B. Singh Bolaria's Identity and Belonging: Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Canadian Society. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press. Pp. 1-18.

Hier, Sean P., Walby, Kevin, and Josh Greenberg. 2006. "Supplementing the Panoptic Paradigm: Surveillance, Moral Governance and CCTV." In D. Lyon's Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond. Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing. Pp. 228-242.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg. 2002. "News Discourse and the Problematization of Chinese Migration to Canada." In F. Henry and C. Tator's Discourses of Domination: Racial Bias in the Canadian English-Language Press. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp.138-162.

Hier, Sean P. 2000. "Structures of Orthodoxy and the Sociological Exclusion of Oliver Cox." In Research in Race and Ethnic Relations V. 11, Oliver Cox, Edited by Herbert M. Hunter. Greenwich, CT and London: JAI Press. Pp. 289-309.

Hier, Sean P. 2009. "More than vernacular commentary: a response Minelle Mahtani." Canadian Journal of Communication, 35, 2: 173-178.

Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg. 2009. "Response: David Murakami Wood's 'Situating Surveillance Studies'". Surveillance and Society, 7, 1: 71-75.