“This wonderful diversity into the unity he is." Or: What can be learned from comparative biography

Speaker: Dr Matteo Bortolini, University of Padova 

Chair: Professor Patrick Baert, University of Cambridge

Date: 5 March 2026
Time: 12:30pm - 1.30pm 
Location: Lecture Theatre A, Arts School/Student Services Centre, Bene't Street, Cambridge 

From Plutarch onward, comparative biography has presented an intriguing and productive oxymoron: how do we compare something that is, by definition, unique—the life course of an individual human being? The conundrum becomes even more compelling when the biographer has been trained as a sociologist, that is, as a social scientist for whom generalization, abstraction, and theorizing are deeply ingrained intellectual habits. In this presentation, I reflect on this problem both theoretically and practically, illustrating its challenges and (alleged) solutions through two of my own works: my biography of the American sociologist Robert Bellah (1927–2013), published in 2021 as A Joyfully Serious Man, and my ongoing work on a biography of the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926–2006).

Biography

Dr Matteo Bortolini is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the University of Padova. He has written several books and articles exploring the Sociology of Intellectuals.