The Harvard University Department of Sociology

Sociology Faculty


Jason Beckfield Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Stratification, health and social policy in the context of economic and political globalization. (On leave spring 2010)

Lawrence D. Bobo W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences. Race, ethnicity, politics, and social inequality.

Mary C. Brinton Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology. Gender stratification, labor market organization, education, economic sociology, and Japanese society.

Nicholas Christakis Professor of Sociology (FAS), and Professor of Medical Sociology (HMS). Sociology of health, illness, and mortality; demography; quantitative methodology. (On leave 2009-2010)

Frank Dobbin Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies. Comparative/historical sociology; organizational theory; economic sociology; public policy; stratification.

Filiz Garip Assistant Professor of Sociology. Migration, economic sociology, statistical methodology, social networks, development inequality. (On leave 2009-2010).

Tamara Kay Assistant Professor of Sociology. Interests: Political sociology, particularly law and social movements; globalization and regional economic integration, transnationalism and global governance; economic development; international human and labor rights.

Michèle Lamont Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies. Cultural sociology, inequality, race and immigration, comparative sociology, the sociology of knowledge, and contemporary sociological theory.

Stanley Lieberson Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Sociology. Social determinants of tastes; logic of social research.

Peter V. Marsden Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of Sociology and Harvard College Professor. Social networks; formal organizations; social stratification; methods.

Orlando Patterson John Cowles Professor of Sociology. Sociology of economic development with special reference to the Caribbean; historical sociology of slavery and freedom; sociology of slavery; Caribbean and Afro-American culture and social structure; ethnicity from a critical and social-philosophical perspective. (On leave spring 2010)

Robert J. Sampson Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and Department Chair. Crime, law, and deviance; neighborhood effects; community/urban; sociology of the city; the life course.

Theda Skocpol Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. American politics; Political sociology; social revolutions; modern welfare states; comparative historical sociology.

Jocelyn Viterna Assistant Professor of Sociology and of Social Studies. Social movements, civil society, democratization, revolution, comparative politics, gender, and qualitative methods. (On leave 2009-2010).

Mary C. Waters M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology. Social demography; race and ethnic relations; social stratification. (On leave 2009-2010)

Bruce Western Professor of Sociology. Political and comparative sociology, stratification and inequality, and methodology.

Martin K. Whyte Professor of Sociology. Comparative sociology; comparative family systems and family change; the American family; gender roles in comparative context; inequality and stratification; bureaucracy; sociology of China; development. (On leave fall 2009)

William Julius Wilson Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor. Race/Ethnic/Minority Relations; Urban Sociology; Social Policy.

Christopher Winship Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology. Analysis of quantitative data; changes in social and economic status of African Americans; transition to adulthood; family formation process. (On leave spring 2010)

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Faculty Affiliates

MaryJo DelVecchio Good Professor of Social Medicine (Medical School). Medical Sociology; Health Policy; Comparative Studies: Indonesia, Middle East.

Kathryn Edin Professor of Public Policy and Management (Kennedy School of Government). Poverty/Social Inequality; Urban and Community Sociology; Family/Gender; Public Policy; Qualitative Methods.

Christopher Jencks Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy (Kennedy School of Government). Stratification/Mobility/Inequality

David R. Williams Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health (Harvard School of Public Health) and Professor of African and African American Studies. Race/ethnicity; health and society.

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Lecturers/visiting faculty teaching in 2009-2010

Laura Adams Lecturer on Sociology (fall 2009). Ethnic and national identity; globalization of culture; democratization and civil society; migration; former Soviet Union and the Muslim World.

David Ager Lecturer on Sociology and Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies. Micro-Sociology, Social Identity Processes, Emotions in Organizations, Social Support Networks, Post-Merger Integration, Micro Transmission of Culture.

Anthony Braga Lecturer on Sociology. Crime prevention, youth violence, criminal justice.

Matthew Baggetta Havard College Fellow and Lecturer on Sociology. Civic associations, civic engagement, social capital, social movements, research design and methods, political sociology, environmental justice and policy, organizations, media, gender.

Jorge Duany Visiting Professor of Sociology (University of Puerto Rico) Caribbean migration, ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism, popular culture among Latinos in the United States.

Luisa Heredia Lecturer on Sociology. Race/ethnicity, immigration, political and civic engagement, and social movements with a focus on ethnic and immigrant political incorporation.

Rachel Meyer Lecturer on Sociology. Labor and work, social class, social movements, culture and identity, political sociology, class and race, globalization.

Timothy J. Nelson Lecturer on Sociology. Sociology of religion; fatherhood; sociology of culture; urban work and poverty; qualitative social analysis.

Claude Rosental Visiting Professor of Sociology (École des Hautes Études, Paris). sociology of science and technology, communication, theory, social cognition, political sociology, networks and quantitative methods. (spring 2010)

Mary Ruggie Adjunct Professor of Public Policy (Kennedy School of Government). Comparative health policy, comparative social policy, gender.

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updated: July 15, 2009

 

 

 

Department Chair
Robert J. Sampson


Director of Graduate Studies
Frank Dobbin


Director of Undergraduate Studies
Jason Beckfield


Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies
David Ager