The Neustadt annual Sociology lecture

The academic year 2024/25 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of sociology at the University of Leicester. As part of those celebrations, Sociology at Leicester are proud to introduce this new annual lecture series named after Leicester's first sociologist, Ilya Neustadt (1915-1993). The series aims to invite high-profile guest speakers to deliver papers and talk on all aspects of sociology.

The first lecture will took place on Wednesday 30 October, at 5.00pm. The inaugurating speaker was Professor Rachel Brooks, President of the British Sociological Association. Professor Brooks was welcomed to the University of Leicester by sociologist and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Henrietta O'Connor. Drawing upon Neustadt’s inaugural lecture ‘On Teaching Sociology’, Professor John Goodwin concluded with some reflections on the aims of the annual lecture series. 

About Ilya Neustadt

Neustadt was born in 1915 near Odessa but moved with his parents to Romanian Bessarabia to escape religious persecution. He then completed one year of medical training in Bucharest before moving to Belgium where, in 1939, he obtained a doctorate from the Université Liegé entitled 'Le problème de l'organisation internationale en Europe centrale: 1919-1939'.

Following the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940, Neustadt fled to London and read for an MA in Sociology at the London School of Economics. Neustadt was then awarded his second PhD, 'Some Aspects of the Social Structure of Belgium', in 1945.

After a brief spell as a librarian in the Russian section at the LSE, Neustadt was appointed as a Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Economics in 1949. Five years later, a separate Department of Sociology was established with Neustadt as the 'senior lecturer in charge'. Neustadt was Head of Sociology until 1980.

In 1962, Neustadt obtained a personal chair in sociology and was the Dean of Social Sciences at Leicester between 1962 and 1965. Neustadt was also an accomplished concert violinist and orchestra conductor.

Described variously as characterful, gregarious, outgoing, dapper, idiosyncratic, and often very challenging, Neustadt laid the foundations for sociology at Leicester and provided an early agenda for how sociology should be taught.