Biography
Michael Wood received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology
from The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests are in
the areas of consumer behavior, social change, culture and consumption.
Current research projects focus on social and psychological influences
on impulse buying, debt, and saving. He has published articles on symbolic
consumer behavior, moral reform social movements, and on content and
text analysis. He is the author (with Louis A. Zurcher) of The Development
of a Post-Modern Self (Greenwood Press 1988), an historical analysis
of changing conceptions of self in the U.S. He was a 1994 summer fellow
at the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Boston University.
He currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Program in Social
Research, and teaches courses in consumer behavior, research design
and methodology, and marketing for nonprofit organizations.