Shyon Baumann

Shyon Baumann is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. He has worked at the University of Toronto since 2002, after graduating with a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University. From 2015-2017, he was Co-Editor-in-Chief of Poetics, and he has served in several administrative roles within the University of Toronto. He has taught courses on the sociology of the media, the sociology of culture, and the logic of social inquiry. His research centres on the sociology of culture, with a focus on people's cultural evaluations, preferences and choices. He also studies the broad social influences on the status and legitimacy of cultural productions. His work aims to understand how cultural consumption and production are linked to social inequality. He has investigated these questions through the cases of film, television, advertising, music, and food. He is currently working on several projects with a range of co-authors, including 1) the production and consumption of humanely and sustainably raised meat, 2) the theorization of taste for aesthetic objects, and 3) the relationships between cultural consumption preferences and behaviors, with a focus on the conditions under which preferences and behaviors are more closely or more loosely aligned. Along with Josée Johnston and Kate Cairns, he is also working on a second edition of Introducing Sociology…Using the Stuff of Everyday Life (Routledge).

Recent Publications

Kennedy, Emily, Baumann, Shyon, and Josée Johnston. 2024. “Meat politics at the dinner table: Understanding differences and similarities in Canadians’ meat-related attitudes, preferences and practices.” Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 11(1), 9–29. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.529

Majeed, Haris, Shyon Baumann, and Hamnah Majeed. 2023. “Role of sea surface temperature variability on the risk of Canadian wheat, barley, and oat yields.” PLOS Climate 2,7: e0000259. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000259

Baumann, Shyon, Josée Johnston, and Merin Oleschuk. 2023. "How do producers imagine consumers? Connecting farm and fork through a cultural repertoire of consumer sovereignty." Sociologia Ruralis 63, no. 1: 178-199.

Baumann, Shyon, Emily Huddart Kennedy, and Josee Johnston. 2022. "Moral and aesthetic consecration and higher status consumers’ tastes: The “good” food revolution." Poetics 92: 101654.

Otto, Natália, Josée Johnston, and Shyon Baumann. 2022. "Moral entrepreneurialism for the hamburger: Strategies for marketing a contested fast food." Cultural Sociology 16, no. 2: 190-211.

For a full list of publications, see Professor Baumann’s Google Scholar page.