Photo: Yorgos Kourtakis / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
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.
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)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aquarius / Goat
- Origin
- Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Occupation
- mathematician / physicist / university teacher
2. Background
- University
- Harvard University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Fashionable Nonsense | — |
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Alan Sokal born?
Born January 24, 1955 (age 71).
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.
What is Alan Sokal known for?
Notable works include Fashionable Nonsense.
Mathematician — see all → · Physicist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.