Max Weber, a German political economist, legal historian, and sociologist, had an impact on the social sciences that is difficult to overestimate. According to a widely held view, he was the founder of the modern way of conceptualizing society and thus the modern social sciences. His major interest was the process of rationalization, which characterizes Western civilization---what he called the "demystification of the world." This interest led him to examine the three types of domination or authority that characterize hierarchical relationships: charismatic, traditional, and legal. It also led him to the study of bureaucracy; all of the world's major religions; and capitalism, which he viewed as a productof the Protestant ethic. With his contemporary, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim---they seem not to have known each other's work---he created modern sociology.
Ania Loomba (born 1955) is a Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of several books including Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama (1989), Colonialism/ Postcolonialis
Adithi Rao is a writer, educator, and activist. She has spent the last eight years travelling between India, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States; all the peoples and cultures she encountered o
Subhashini Ali, formerly the president of the All India Democratic Women's Association, is a Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
