Back to Play Scientists
Sociologist Thomas Henricks has studied the social dimensions of play in adult life for more than 40 years, bringing a distinctly sociological lens to a field dominated by psychology and neuroscience. He argues that play is not merely an individual activity but a communal one — one of four fundamental modes of human expression alongside work, ritual, and communitas. J. Earl Danieley Professor and Distinguished University Professor at Elon University, he has written several books examining play through the frameworks of classical sociologists and exploring how play constitutes and reflects human selfhood.
Thomas S. Henricks, PhD
Most Influential Work
Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression (U of Illinois Press, 2006)
Play and the Human Condition (U of Illinois Press, 2015)