Photo: Yorgos Kourtakis / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Born on January 24, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Alan Sokal is a mathematician, physicist and university teacher. Alan Sokal is 71 years old as of 2026. Education on record includes Harvard University. Notable works include Fashionable Nonsense.
My Take
Alan Sokal is the guy who basically tricked an entire academic field into publishing gibberish — and pulled it off so cleanly that it sparked a genuine philosophical crisis about what "rigorous scholarship" even means. In 1996, he submitted a paper stuffed with deliberate nonsense to the journal Social Text, it sailed through peer review and got published, and the fallout — now called the Sokal Affair — rattled humanities departments for years. As a Harvard-educated physicist and mathematician at NYU, he had the credibility to land the prank, and his follow-up book Fashionable Nonsense laid out his case methodically. I find him genuinely fascinating because he wasn't just trolling — he was making a serious point about intellectual standards, and he made it in the most unforgettable way possible.
This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Alan Sokal
- Name (Japanese)
- アラン・ソーカル
- Reading
- あらん・そーかる
- Born
- January 24, 1955 (age 71)
- Origin
- Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Occupation
- mathematician / physicist / university teacher
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aquarius / Goat
2. Background
- University
- Harvard University
3. Works & records
Filmography / notable works
| Category | Title |
|---|---|
| Notable work | Fashionable Nonsense |
4. Links
- Official sitehttps://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=ADSOK62
- Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan%20Sokal
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AB
- Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q370022
5. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.
Frequently asked questions
When was Alan Sokal born?
Alan Sokal was born on January 24, 1955 and is 71 years old.
Where is Alan Sokal from?
Alan Sokal is from Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
What does Alan Sokal do?
Alan Sokal works as mathematician, physicist, university teacher.
Where did Alan Sokal study?
Alan Sokal attended Harvard University.
What is Alan Sokal known for?
Alan Sokal's notable works include Fashionable Nonsense.
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