Pierson, Donald, 1900-1995

Sociologist, social anthropologist.

Donald Pierson was born on September 8, 1900, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was educated at the College of Emporia, Kansas and the University of Chicago. He was a professor at the Escola de Sociologia e Política in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1939-1959. He directed the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and served as Dean of the Graduate Division. He also directed the Brazilian section of the Institute of Social Anthropology in the Smithsonian.

At the Institute, he helped to provide reading materials for social sciences training, and traveled to Spain and Portugal to do research as a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1966, he was a Fulbright Lecturer at the Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Política Ultramarina. He died in Leesburg, Florida in 1995. One of his principal works is Cruz das almas: a Brazilian village, and its manuscript is included in the collection.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1938-1965. (University of Florida). WorldCat record id: 48668952

Sociologist, social anthropologist. Born September 8, 1900, in Indianapolis, Indiana. A.B., College of Emporia (Kansas), 1927; M. A. (1933) and Ph. D. (1939), University of Chicago. Married Helen Joy Batchelor, June 12, 1929. Died in 1995 in Leesburg, Florida.

Donald Pierson was Professor "Catedratico" of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Escola de Sociologia e Política in São Paulo, Brazil, 1939-1959. He organized and directed the Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology there in the 1940s and also organized and served as Dean of the Graduate Division from 1943 to 1957. From 1945 to 1952, he directed, in collaboration with the Escola, the Brazilian section of the Institute of Social Anthropology of the Smithsonian. Through book donations from the American Library Association, the American Council of Learned Societies, and other institutions, Pierson helped arrange reading materials at the Escola that could support training in the social sciences until texts could be written or translated into Portuguese. At the request of the Director of the Escola, Helen Pierson taught English to the Escola's students for the first six years so that the library could be better utilized.

In the years following his tenure at the Escola de Sociologia e Político he worked briefly with the Pan American Union's Inter-American Post-Graduate Program in Applied Social Science in Mexico City. He traveled to Spain and Portugal to do research as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1963-1964. He returned to Portugal in 1966 to serve one semester as a Fulbright Lecturer at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina. Among his principal works are Negroes in Brazil: A Study of Race Contact at Bahia (1942), Cruz das Almas: A Brazilian Village (1951), and O Homem no Vale do São Francisco (1971). He co-edited the journal Sociologia, 1950-1957, and organized and edited in São Paulo for several years a book series of translations in the social sciences entitled Biblioteca de Ciências Sociais .

From the guide to the Donald Pierson Papers, 1938-1965, (Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida)