Liberman is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon. He also has academic appointments in Denmark where he is the Hans Christian Anderson Visiting Professor at Southern Denmark University; Italy where he is University Research Fellow with the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Trento; and India where he is Visiting Professor at Sera Je Monastic University (Tibetan).
His ethnomethodological and social phenomenological research projects have addressed Tibetan philosophical practices, the work of professional coffee tasters concerned to make tastes objective, race relations in central Australia, and the local orderliness of (a) pedestrian crossings, (b) games with rules, and (c) turn rights & turn taking in the surfers’ lineup. He also teaches yoga to surfers at surf camps and author of Yoga for Surfers (Yoga Shakti Center, Huntington Beach, 2009). In 2015 Liberman received the Best Book Award from the Section on Ethnomethodology of the American Sociological Association for More Studies in Ethnomethodology (SUNY Press, 2013). His other books include Understanding Interaction in Central Australia (Routledge 1985), Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004; translated into Chinese as Xi Zang Zhe Xue Wen Hua Zhong De Bian Jing Huo Dong, Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2006), Husserl’s Criticism of Reason (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007), and The Panchen Lama’s Debate Between Wisdom and the Reifying Habit (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2015).
These research commitments have caused Liberman to invest himself in many parts of the world — Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata), Australia (Perth, Yallingup), Brasil (Santos, Florianopolis), Denmark (Kolding, Klitmoller), El Salvador (San Salvador, Trunco), India (Mysore & Coorg), Israel (Jerusalem, Al Hagal Surfing Foundation), Italia (Trento, Oristano & Santa Maria de Leuca), and Oregon (Eugene, Florence jetty). He lives in Baja California, Mexico, when he is not traveling for research, teaching, or waves.