In his rather long period of formal education, he had never made any academically supervised study of sociology.
He left Aberdeen in 1915 for a post at the University of Toronto where he was Professor of Political Science and later Head of Department from 1922 to 1927.
In 1927 he accepted an invitation from Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City, where he became professor of Social Science from 1927 to 1936.
He was subsequently named Lieber Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Columbia University and taught there from 1929 to 1950.
[7] Among its activities, with Albert Simard, in 1955, the three signed a letter addressed to South Africa on equality.