CAS CONNECT 2013

28 an inspiring teacher and … I know he always is there as my friend and a guide.” EARLY DAYS Knottnerus was born and raised in Alton, Ill., a small town on the Mississippi River. At age 18, he enrolled at Beloit College in Wisconsin to study chemistry. Once he real- ized that chemistry wasn’t his passion in life, he took some time to determine what that actually was. An introduc- tory course in sociology later, Knottnerus fell in love with the subject. After earning his master’s and doctorate from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Knottnerus taught at Florida’s University of Tampa. In 1989, he brought his talents to Oklahoma State, where he could focus on research and other scholarly work in addition to teaching. At OSU, he met another new professor, Frederique Van de Poel, who would become his wife. She is a profes- sor of French and has collab- orated with Knottnerus on several articles and two books, The Social Worlds of Male and Female Children in the 19th-Century French Educational System: Youth, Rituals and Elites and Literary Narratives on the 19th- and Early 20th-Century French Elite Educational System: Rituals and Total Institution s. STUDY OF RITUALS Why do people do what they do? That’s exactly what Knottnerus’ research seeks to answer. Within the field of sociology, Knottnerus has several inter- ests, including social theory, social psychology and social inequality. However, his main interest is the study of rituals. Over the past 16 years, Knottnerus has developed a formal theory on rituals, how they work and their impact on individuals and groups. He defines a ritual as a routine or a patterned behavior that has a higher meaning and that aids people in coping with their situations. His theory is defined in his book Ritual as a Missing Link: Sociology, Structural Ritualization Theory and Research . “The concept of rituals is underutilized and often ignored,” Knottnerus says. “It is essential to use this knowledge to alleviate and reduce social problems and inequalities. The main goal in all of this research is to apply it to everyday life.” His studies, done with collaborators, have encom- passed all sorts of groups and many different situa- tions, ranging from the social dynamics in ancient Sparta (“That paper is getting a global response,” he says) to Ireland’s Orange Order to the Notting Hill Carnival in London, from the develop- ment of golf in America to coping with life in concentra- tion camps including Russian labor camps, Nazi camps, POW camps and Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during World War II, as well as an intense look at the culture inside Enron and the various practices there that led to its meltdown. A current example of Knottnerus’ research involves analyzing social interac- tions among members of an Antarctic crew working under extreme conditions. He and his collaborators, graduate student Kevin Johnson and James Mason, a lecturer in the Department of Marketing in the Spears School of Business, are reviewing and analyz- ing the diaries and memoirs of crew members from several “Dr. Knot tnerus was the f i rst person to help me real ize how impor tant scholarly act ivi ty is i f I want to be a successful educator.” — Jason Ulsperger, about his mentor Courtesy Jason Ulsperger