Kevin Lewis

Graduate Student in Sociology

Biographical Note

Kevin received his bachelor's degrees from the University of California, San Diego, double majoring in sociology and philosophy with a minor in mathematics. Under the guidance of Professors John Skrentny and Jeff Haydu, he completed an interview-based honors thesis exploring the meaning of cosmetic surgery in modern society. Also as an undergrad, Kevin collaborated with Professor David Phillips on independent research involving U.S. mortality rates; worked for two years as a House Advisor for John Muir College; and graduated Summa Cum Laude in June 2005.

Kevin is currently a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, where he is involved in two major research projects. First, he is interviewing residents of Austin, TX and Boston, MA in a comparative study of "culture in action" in the context of contemporary tattooing. Second, for the past three years he has overseen the development of a new cultural, multiplex, and longitudinal social network dataset using data from Facebook.com. This dataset has given rise to a number of collaborative projects exploring the intersection of social networks, tastes (with Jason Kaufman and Marco Gonzalez), ethnicity (with Andreas Wimmer), and privacy (with Jason Kaufman and Nicholas Christakis). While broad, Kevin's interests revolve around American culture- the landscape of beliefs, values, and dispositions that characterize modern Americans and the interplay of autonomy and social influence through which they influence behavior.

Kevin is also the Departmental Writing Fellow for the 2008/2009 academic year. Students taking sociology courses are encouraged to e-mail him to set up an appointment for help with written assignments.

10/25/2008

Research Interests

culture, social psychology, social networks

Previous Degrees

BA in Sociology, UC San Diego (2005)
BA in Philosophy, UC San Diego (2005)

Photo by Connie Rice.

Contact

617-496-3852 (Phone)
617-496-5794 (FAX)

641 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office Hours

Thursdays 3-5pm