In Memoriam: Aaron Cicourel

We share with deep sadness that Aaron Victor Cicourel – a professor emeritus in the departments of Cognitive Science and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, a founding faculty member of both departments, who over the course of some 50 years with UC San Diego also taught in our School of Medicine – passed away on July 22. He was 94 and surrounded by loved ones at the time of his death in Berkeley, Calif.

A cognitive sociologist and sociolinguist with specialties in medical communication, decision-making and child socialization, Cicourel made abiding contributions in the many interdisciplinary fields to which he applied his intellect. He left a lasting imprint not only on several fields of study but also on the many students and colleagues that he mentored over the course of his long and engaged life.

Cicourel’s 1964 book, “Method and Measurement in Sociology,” is a classic text and one of the most cited books in the field, which nearly 60 years after its publication continues to fuel debate. The book posits that both qualitative and quantitative analysis are deeply contextual and contingent – situated in society and in the assumptions of the scientists doing the work. In the book and in subsequent research as well, Cicourel argued that reported findings on human behavior have to be understood in light of the humans conducting the studies, the decisions and choices they make – that the cognition of analysts is just as important to scrutinize as the cognition of subjects.

He was a prolific author and his many publications were frequently translated for audiences around the world. “Method and Measurement” also appeared in German, Japanese and Spanish, for example, and most recently his book “The Social Organization of Juvenile Justice” came out in French.

Cicourel began his University of California career as an undergraduate student at UCLA, earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1951 and then a master’s in sociology and anthropology in 1955, before completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1957. After a Russell Sage Foundation postdoctoral fellowship with UCLA Medical Center and a two-year visiting appointment at Northwestern, Cicourel began teaching at UC Riverside in 1960, then also took appointments at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara, before moving to UC San Diego in 1970.

One of the earliest faculty members in the UC San Diego Department of Sociology, Cicourel arrived at the La Jolla campus as professor of sociology. His interdisciplinary interests soon led him to also teach in the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine, and he would go on to help in the creation of the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, the first department of its kind in the world.

Even after he transitioned to emeritus professor at UC San Diego in 1994, he continued his service to the UC: as a distinguished research professor at UC San Diego and also with later appointments at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

Cicourel’s academic career took him all around the world, from the University of London, where he was a National Science Foundation senior postdoctoral fellow, to Madrid on a Guggenheim Fellowship and to Brazil as a Fulbright lecturer, to name just three honors and three points on the globe. He also held the prestigious appointment of visiting professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris four different times.

Other awards include honorary doctorates from Université de Fribourg in Switzerland and Complutense University of Madrid. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science in 1992.

Cicourel was born on Aug. 29, 1928, in Atlanta, Ga., a descendant of Sephardic Jews who were forced to leave Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. His parents immigrated independently to the U.S. from Greece and Turkey, eventually arriving in Atlanta where they met and married. Cicourel’s first language was Ladino, a language derived from Old Spanish, and at the age of 4, Cicourel moved to Los Angeles with his parents and older sister, where they were part of a Turkish Sephardic community. 

The family was not well-off and Cicourel worked from an early age, selling newspapers, processing mail and working at a supermarket. After graduating from Manual Arts High School, he was expected to continue to help caring for his family financially and he continued to do so, including by working alongside migrant workers in the Central Valley. Working fulltime in various jobs, Cicourel attended Los Angeles City College for three years before transferring to UCLA, where at age 22 he met his future wife, Merryl, then 18. Upon his graduation from UCLA in 1951, Cicourel married Merryl and was also drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in the Korean War.

Cicourel was an avid reader. He loved music and dancing. He is remembered also for having a beautiful singing voice and for singing at family gatherings and singing his children and grandchildren to sleep.

Cicourel is survived by his wife of 72 years, Merryl Berner Cicourel; their three children, Gregg, Denise and Eric Cicourel; and four grandchildren.