Cornell’s Department of Sociology explores human social organization, institutions and groups. The department is known for the cutting-edge research of its faculty and for its exceptionally strong graduate and undergraduate training programs. It has a long-standing tradition of engaging and valuing theoretically driven empirical research. This approach to sociology uses sophisticated theoretical reasoning and rigorous methodological tools, many of which are developed by Cornell faculty, to answer fundamental questions about the social world, how it is organized and how it is changing. The department’s focus on basic science is complemented by a deep commitment to informing public and educational policy, particularly on issues related to gender and racial inequality, income inequality, poverty, drug use, economic development, school funding, organizational practices and race and ethnicity.
The sociology department also has close ties with the many other research centers on campus. Interdisciplinary research touches on subjects such as inequality, economics, social sciences, nonlinear systems, politics and social dynamics.
Department websiteBryan L. Sykes
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Sociology
Publications
- RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (Beyond the Penal Code: The Legal Capacity of Monetary Sanctions in the Corpus of California Law)
- RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences (Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: Public Assistance, Monetary Sanctions, and Financial Double-Dealing in America)
- The Lancet (Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980-2019: a network meta-regression)
Sadé Lindsay
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Sociology
Publications
Meaghan Mingo
Publications
Peer Reviewed Publications
Mingo, Meaghan and Anna R. Haskins. 2020. “Mass Incarceration in the U.S. and Its Collateral Consequences.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. Ed. Lynette Spillman. New York: Oxford University Press.
Waller, Maureen, Lenna Nepomnyaschy, Daniel R. Miller, and Meaghan Mingo. 2021. “Using a Narrative Approach to Analyze Longitudinal Mixed Methods Data.” Journal of Mixed Methods Research.
Haskins, Anna, Mariana Amorim, and Meaghan Mingo. 2018. “Parental Incarceration and Child Outcomes: Those at Risk, Evidence of Impacts, Methodological Insights, and Areas of Future Work.” Sociology Compass 12(3).
Bowleg, Lisa, Meaghan Mingo, and Jenné S. Massie. 2013. “‘The Skill Is Using Your Big Head Over Your Little Head’: What Black Heterosexual Men Say They Know, Want, and Need to Prevent HIV.” American Journal of Men’s Health 7(4):31S–42S.
Manuscripts Under Review
Mingo, Meaghan. “Stay in a Child’s Place: Adult Authority and Schooling in the Black Belt.”
- Honorable Mention, David Lee Stevenson Paper Award, Education Section, American Sociological Association, 2023
- Robin M. Williams Jr. Best Paper Award on Race and Ethnicity, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, 2022
Mingo, Meaghan. “That Camera Sees Everything and Hears Everything: Surveilling Schools in the Rural South.”
- Robin M. Williams Jr. Best Paper Award on Race and Ethnicity, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, 2023
Education
MA, Sociology, Cornell University, 2018
MPH, Community Health & Prevention, Drexel University, 2013
BA, Sociology, Emmanuel College, 2010
Departments and programs
Links
Mary Ball
Department Manager
Jacqueline Ho
Ph.D. date: May 2024 (expected)
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ho, Jacqueline. "Agentic Selves, Agentic Stories: Cultural Foundations of Beliefs about Meritocracy." Forthcoming in American Journal of Cultural Sociology
Reid Ralston
Ph.D. date: May 2024 (expected)
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ralston, Reid. 2022. “Separating the Art from its Artist: Film Reviews in the Era of #MeToo” Poetics 92(A). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2022.101653.
Michael Macy
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Sociology, Director of the Social Dynamics Laboratory