William C. Cockerham received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds secondary appointments in medicine and public health and is recipient of the UAB Connors Prize in the History of Ideas and the Ireland Award for Distinguished Scholarship.¿He is past President of the Research Committee on Health Sociology of the International Sociological Association and formerly on the Editorial Board of the American Sociological Review. Currently, he is on the Editorial Boards of Social Currents and Society and Mental Health.¿Dr.

Cockerham has published numerous peer-reviewed papers in academic journals and is author or editor of¿seventeen books.¿His most recent books¿from¿Routledge are Medical Sociology, Thirteenth Edition (2015) and The Sociology of Mental Disorder,¿Ninth Edition (2014).