The Harvard University Department of Sociology

Harvard Sociology News

 

FriendsUsing data collected from Facebook, Sociology Ph.D. candidate, Kevin Lewis, and colleagues examined one of the great unsolved puzzles of social science — do we form friendships with people because we share interests, or do we share interests with people because they are our friends? See Harvard Gazette article, The Influence of Friends, January 18, 2012.

Revisiting Deng Xiaoping: A Word with Ezra F. Vogel is the New York Times interview with Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II research professor of the social sciences, emeritus, about his new book Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (Belknap/Harvard, 2011). Also see the book review in Harvard Magazine, The "Steel Factory" (September-October 2011).

Martin K. Whyte was named a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for 2011. Professor Whyte is one of ten professors in FAS who were honored for their distinguished publications.

Social Knowledge in the Making (Inside Higher Education, October 26, 2011). Editors Charles Camic, Neil Gross, and Michèle Lamont answer questions about their new edited volume of collected essays and original research (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

"Why Don't Boston's Great Professors Study Boston?" (Ideas, Boston Globe, October 9, 2011) discusses recent efforts lead by Professors Robert J. Sampson and Christopher Winship to close the gap between researchers and the city where they live.

Nicholas Christakis delivered the 2011 Opening Days Lecture, “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives."

A conference on " The Legal Parameters of Slavery: Historical to the Contemporary" was held August 27 at Harvard Law School. The conference was co-sponsored by our Department (through Orlando Patterson), the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

Christopher Winship has been selected as one of four recipients of this year's Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award. This award is given annually to faculty members who truly go out of their way to mentor graduate students by supporting, encouraging and promoting students' research, education, professional and personal development, and career plans. See Above and Beyond (GSAS News, April 2011). [Pictured left to right are: Van Tran, Charles Loeffler, Corina Graif, Jackie Cooke-Rivers, Christopher Winship, Chris Muller, Jeremy Levine, and Josh Wakeham.} Michèle Lamont was a recipient of the award in 2010 and Jocelyn Viterna received the award in 2009.

Robert J. Sampson, Queen Silvie, and John Laub
John Laub and Robert J. Sampson were awarded the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for their research showing why and how criminals stop offending. The award was presented by Queen Silvie at a ceremony held at Stockholm City Hall on June 14, 2011. Pictured at right are Robert J. Sampson, Queen Silvie of Sweden, and John Laub.

 

David Ager is one of this year’s recipients of the Phi Beta Kappa prize for excellence in teaching.  David was nominated by student members of the Alpha-Iota of Massachusetts Phi Beta Kappa chapter. In the notification David received, it was noted that “This award is an indication that your teaching has inspired some of the best undergraduates at Harvard.”

Michèle Lamont was interviewed on May 20, 2011 by Nicolas Duvoux, Nadège Vezinat, & Elise Tenret for booksandideas.net. See Culture of Poverty and Social Resilience or Retrouver le sens de la vie social.

Robert J. Sampson was elected President of the American Society of Criminology for 2011. He was also one of 18 experts named by Attorney General Eric Holder to the newly created Office of Justice Program Science Advisory Board (see the Department of Justice Release of November 23, 2010).

Chris Winship posted "Walmart and the ASA" to the orgtheory blog. The piece is about the recent ASA Amicus Brief which supports the use of social framework analysis by social scientists who act as expert witnesses in, and whose conclusions can support class certification of, large class action discrimination litigation cases. This issue is generating a lot of debate, the outcome of which might have important implications for the role of social scientists in legal processes, such as the current Walmart case [more on the case here 1, 2, 3] to be decided on this summer. Discussion on the blog has also incorporated other issues relating to the mission and role of ASA.

A memorial service was held for Daniel Bell on April 15, 2011. See Remembering Daniel Bell.

Christopher Winship presented on "Activity-Based-Learning," as part of the Conversations @ FAS series. See the article "Don't Just Sit There" (Harvard Gazette, February 15, 2011).

Peter V. Marsden has been named the new Dean of Social Science, effective January 1, 2011. (Harvard Magazine, November 18, 2010.)

Race Plays Minor Role in Facebook Friendships (Harvard Gazette, October 2010) highlights research of Sociology graduate student Kevin Lewis and Professor Andreas Wimmer of UCLA.

The Culture of Poverty Makes a Comeback (New York Times, October 18, 2010.

William Julius Wilson and Anmol Chaddha explain "Why we're teaching "The Wire" at Harvard" in the Outlook and Opinions column of The Washington Post, September 12, 2010.

SMR Blog Banner Thompson-Reuters has recently released the 2009 Journal Citation Reports. This year it introduced the 5-year impact factor, a major improvement over its previous measure which was overly sensitive to short term changes. Sociological Methods & Research, a Sage publication, which has been edited by Christopher Winship since 1995, this year ranks #4 among top sociology journals according to the new measurement, just behind ARS, AJS and ASR. In addition, SMR is #5 among social science methods journals.

Tamara Kay"Social Movements: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Change in Puerto Rico" (in Spanish "Movimientos Sociales: Retos y Oportunidades para del Cambio Social en Puerto Rico") was an interview with Tamara Kay produced by the Center for the New Economy and Puerto Rico's public radio station Radio Universidad.



Michèle Lamont, David J. Harding, and Mario Luis Small were special editors of the issue "Reconsidering Culture and Poverty", a new volume of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. See "Social Scientists Offer a Multifaceted Picture of Poverty's Consequences" (ASA Footnotes, July/August 2010)

"Jamaica's Bloody Democracy" New York Times Op-Ed (May 28, 2010) by Orlando Patterson discusses his recent work with Ethan Fosse on democraticzation and violence.

Christopher Winship, Editor of Sociological Methods & Research, has just launched the SMR Blog, a forum enabling increased intellectual exchange about SMR content and related topics of interest. Sage Publications has provided full-text access to 16 SMR articles, and will feature 1 full-text article from each issue on the SMR blog going forward. The entire current issue of SMR, a Special Issue on Sequence Analysis, is featured and available now, and a new article by Tyler VanderWheele of HSPH Department of Biostatistics will be coming soon. The blog will also host original work, such as replications and comment papers. Please visit and participate!

Bruce WesternInequality Program and Professor Bruce Western are featured in winter 2010 GSAS Magazine. Research of graduate students Jacqueline Chattopadhyay and David Hureau is also highlighted. See pages 12-15 of Colloquy.

Who's Still Biased? (Ideas section of the Boston Globe, March 7, 2010) featured research of Frank Dobbin et al. on diversity training and why it doesn't work.

Research by Neil Gross and Ethan Fosse was the subject of an article "Professor is a label that leans to the left" (New York Times, Arts Section, January 17, 2010). The article was also picked up by Fox News, The Vancouver Sun, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Insider Higher Ed, and several other news outlets.

Michèle Lamont and Eloi Laurent contributed a New York Times Op-Ed on "The French Model: Fashionable Again which was first published in the International Herald Tribune on December 18,2009. Lamont and Bruno Cousin discuss the state of French public universities in "The French Disconnection" (cover story in The Times Higher Education, December 3, 2009). Lamont and Harvard professor Peter A. Hall contributed an article, The Wear and Tear of Our Daily Lives, to the Opinions page of The Globe and Mail (November 13, 2009).

Anthony A. Braga, lecturer in Sociology, was one of 12 individuals recognized last month by the US Attorney General for his work to combat Boston gang crime. The Harvard Crimson, November 1, 2009.

Sociology alum, Arne Duncan, (A.B., Harvard, 1987) has been chosen to serve as secretary of education in the Obama administration. (See Schools Chief from Chicago is Cabinet Pick, New York Times, December 16, 2008).

The following awards were presented during this year's 104th ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco: Lauren Rivera, Best Student Paper Award, Sociology of Law section for her paper, "Cultural Reproduction in the Labor Market: Homophily in Job Interviews." Christopher Bail and Lauren Rivera, Best Student Paper Award, Political Sociology section. Christopher Bail's article, "The Configuration of Symbolic Boundaries against Immigrants in Europe", was published in the February 2008 ASR, 73:1, 37-59. Lauren Rivera's paper, "Managing 'Spoiled' National Identity: Tourism, War, and Memory in Croatia," was published in the August 2008 issue of ASR, 73:4, 613-34.

Nicholas Christakis was included among Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the category of scientists and thinkers.

Robert J. Sampson talks with Jeff Stein, AIA in "Street Smarts" found in the spring 2009 issue of Architecture Boston.

Jovonne Bickerstaff gave a speech at the residence of the French Ambassador to the U.S. for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Franco American Commission on Educational Exchange, which administers the Fulbright Program in France.

The Genes in your Congeniality (Harvard Science, Culture & Society, January 26, 2009) discusses research by Nicholas Christakis, and fellow researchers James Fowler and Christopher Dawes (both of UC San Diego). This the first study to examine the inherited characteristics of social networks and to establish a genetic role in the formation and configuration of these networks.

The Moynihan Report Revisited: Lessons and Reflections After Four Decades (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 621, No. 1) is now available at Sage Journals on-line.

Michèle Lamont has been named senior adviser on faculty development and diversity in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. See article in the Harvard Gazette (December 11, 2008).

Research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler (UC-San Diego) on the social network effects of happiness was the Research News feature of December 5, 2008 on NPR. To read more and view happiness clusters in a social network see: Happiness: Is it Contagious? . See also Having Happy Friends can Make you Happy (Harvard Science Matters). For a copy of the paper click here.

Laura Tach and Sarah Halpern-MeekinASA Family Section's 2008 award for the best graduate student paper went to our students, Laura Tach and Sarah Halpern-Meekin (pictured at left) for their paper "Heterogeneity in Two-Parent Families and Adolescent Well-Being." See Family Forum (fall 2008) for a description of their paper.

An Eternal Revolution, an op-ed piece by Orlando Patterson appeared in the New York Times, November 7, 2008 edition. The New Mainstream appeared in the November 10, 2008 edition of Newsweek magazine.

The Yard“The New Social Science” was the focus of the fall/winter 2007 issue of The Yard, highlighting the research being done by Harvard social scientists.  See: “America’s rising inequality and what we can do about it”; Knowledge in action: Confronting social problems; and “Challenging assumptions.”

William Julius Wilson spoke on October 1 at the first colloquium of the year of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. A summary of his talk was featured in the October 16 issue of the Harvard Gazette. See " Wilson perceives social structure and culture as key causes of poverty".

Michèle Lamont is serving as chair of an international blue-ribbon panel
charged with studying and revising the peer review process of the Social
Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

 

Updated: January 19, 2012

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