Cassandra Sever is a theorist of culture, meaning, and belief whose work sits at the intersection of sociology, political theory, and philosophy. She investigates how human persons pursue meaning, how cultures shape and constrain that pursuit, and what happens when inherited frameworks of belief begin to fracture. Her work draws on the Catholic intellectual tradition, classical moral philosophy, and contemporary social theory to examine sacred commitments as both the foundation of personal identity and a driver of collective crisis.
She is currently writing a book that develops an Aristotelian discourse framework for identifying and analyzing cultural despair. The project argues that when cultural elites destabilize or reconfigure sacred commitments, persons experience an ontological rupture that manifests in widespread crises, such as suicide epidemics, authoritarian resurgence, and the erosion of moral coherence. Combining theoretical innovation with empirical case studies, the book offers new tools for diagnosing cultural breakdown and rethinking political authority and cultural repair.
Sever holds a PhD in sociology and was most recently a Visiting Instructor at Mount Holyoke College. She serves as Managing Editor of the American Journal of Cultural Sociology.