I am a neurosociologist with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Iowa and a passion for advancing interdisciplinary approaches to the study of human behavior, inequality, and health. My research integrates sociology, public health, and neuroscience to examine how structural inequalities of race, gender, and ethnicity are embodied, processed, and resisted.

I am currently a Professor of Leadership and Change at Antioch University. Previously, I served as a Senior Neuroscientist at Korn Ferry Institute, and before that as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside (in both Sociology and the Neuroscience Graduate Program) and at Georgia State University’s Global Studies Institute. I also trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Pascal Boyer’s Evolution, Cognition, and Culture Laboratory at the University of Lyon, France.

My work combines multilevel and cross-national survey analysis with neuroscientific experimental techniques—including fMRI—to investigate how the micro-dynamics of bias, moral emotions, and well-being connect to broader social systems and ideologies. This research has appeared in leading journals across sociology and neuroscience and informs my forthcoming book, The Racialized Brain: The Neurosociology of Race and Racism (Polity Press, in press).

Beyond academia, I am deeply committed to community and environmental justice. I co-chair Slow Food Atlanta, where I work on food justice initiatives and sustainability practices that promote good, clean, and fair food for all.

See Firat_CV

See Google Scholar for a list of my publications.

Contact: rfirat@gmail.com