From the Chair
It’s a turbulent time for the field. More than ever, social science is needed to diagnose our cascading social problems, to find ways to address them, and to bring evidence to bear on competing proposals ... all with a science-forward commitment. This newsletter has but one simple goal: To showcase this new “open and engaged” school of sociology and the department that is making it happen.
- David Grusky
Shelley Correll's call to move from 'knowing' to 'doing'
In her presidential address at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting in August, Shelley Correll called for a more solution-oriented sociology, one that goes beyond identifying social inequalities. “To make a difference, we have to move from knowing to doing,” she said in a recent interview.
Photo by Andrew Brodhead
David Rehkopf on how society shapes longevity
What determines how long or how well we live? For David Rehkopf, the answer lies partly in social conditions that shape our lives. We spoke with David, who recently joined the department, about his path to sociology, his findings on the "forgotten middle," and why living longer, healthier lives means looking beyond individual choices.
Asad L. Asad and Matthew Clair share their journeys to tenure
From a Google search to tenure
By Asad L. Asad
I had never taken a sociology class when I decided to apply to sociology PhD programs. As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I studied political science and Spanish. Having been a high school policy debater, political science seemed like the natural path for someone interested in law and public policy.
A path shaped by questions of inequality
By Matthew Clair
“Mr. Clair, I wish I was White. Black is ugly.” After a lesson on the Civil Rights Movement, one of my third-grade students pulled me aside and whispered those words in my ear. I was unsettled. Every student in my classroom that year was Black, and just about every teacher in our Atlanta public school was too.
From the Halls of McClatchy
Graduate students sport their new Stanford Sociology sweatshirts following a Town Hall meeting earlier this year. The Association for Sociology Graduate Students (ASGS) co-chairs Michelle Casas, Monica Gao, and Emily Johnson spearheaded the project after realizing that the department had not offered its own apparel in several years. “We all have plenty of Stanford merch, but nothing that represents our department or discipline specifically,” Johnson said. “A Stanford Sociology sweatshirt is a fun way to represent the community that is such a big part of our lives!” In other student news, meet our 2026 doctoral cohort.
Sociological Science Conference
Stanford's Sociology Department hosted the Sociological Science annual conference in June. Over 80 papers were presented, and around 140 sociologists participated, bringing together researchers to share new work and exchange ideas. The conference was organized by Jeremy Freese, David Grusky, Michelle Jackson, and Michael Rosenfeld. An archived version of the conference program is available for anyone who wants to see the full lineup.
To be kept informed about future Sociological Science conferences, please fill out our form.
Alumni dispatches
David Mechanic at the Rutgers Institute of Health 40th anniversary in 2025. Photo by Elzbieta Kaciuba.
David Mechanic (MA '58, PhD ’59) arrived at Stanford before medical sociology had a name. Nearly seventy years, 31 books, and a Rutgers health institute later, the field he helped develop still influences how researchers and policymakers think about illness, mental health, and health care. Meet David Mechanic
Our alumni near and far
Explore our interactive map to view the geographic reach of nearly 300 alumni and see where fellow Stanford Sociology PhDs are working today. We'd love to connect with more of our alumni! What would you like to know about your cohort or the broader alumni community? Write us at: palmprints [at] stanford.edu (palmprints[at]stanford[dot]edu)
Stanford Sociology PhD student Renee Louis with Alumna Claire Daviss
About 70 alumni, students, and faculty gathered for Stanford Sociology's reception at the ASA annual meeting in New York in August, catching up with colleagues old and new and raising a glass to Professor Shelley Correll, the 2026 ASA president, for her distinguished leadership of the discipline. Celebrating together
New courses launching this year
Designing Cities for a Migrating World
Professor Tomás Jiménez with Sam Seidel of Stanford’s d.school
The course introduces key concepts in migration, core design principles, and evidence-based strategies for policy evaluation. Putting theory to practice, undergraduate students will tackle pressing challenges in a local city and present proposed solutions to leaders.
2026 US Election, How to Understand and Participate
Professor Michael Rosenfeld
Undergraduate and master’s students will combine academic research on voting rights and opinion polling with political participation. The course asks participants to engage directly for a candidate, political party, ballot measure, or non-partisan organization of their choice.
Law and Society
Associate Professor Asad L. Asad
This course introduces doctoral students to sociolegal scholarship as a distinct theoretical and empirical field. The seminar will also serve as a research incubator, encouraging students to identify gaps in existing scholarship to develop questions for dissertation projects or future sociolegal research.
Recent Scholarship
Two Urban Alchemy ambassadors on a streetcorner in San Francisco's Tenderloin.
A new study published Sept.1 in PNAS Nexus led by Professor Forrest Stuart with former Stanford PhD student Caylin Moore offers evidence that unarmed community members trained in de-escalation and service can reduce crime and disorder in high-need public spaces.
Associate Professor Jackelyn Hwang combines AI and Google Street View to measure quality-of-life factors – such as trash, blight, new construction, and the pace of recovery from climate disasters – to analyze gentrification, racial equity, and overall resident well-being.
In memoriam, Mary L. Fennell (MA '75, PhD '78)
Mary L. Fennell, a Stanford Sociology alumna and distinguished scholar of organizations, health care, and the professions, died June 15, 2026, in Bellingham, Washington. She was 73. After beginning her academic career at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Fennell joined Pennsylvania State University and later Brown University, where she was a professor of sociology and community health. She also held several leadership positions at Brown, including director of graduate studies, associate dean of the faculty, dean of the faculty, and chair of the Department of Sociology. Fennell remained connected intellectually to her Stanford training throughout her career. In later work, she reflected on the influence of what she and coauthor Ann Barry Flood called the “Stanford School of Organizational Sociology” on the study of health care organizations. Fennell shared much of her life in sociology with her husband, Dennis P. Hogan, a sociologist and demographer who became the Robert E. Turner Distinguished Professor of Population Studies and Sociology at Brown. Hogan died just weeks after Fennell. They were married for 47 years.
Publications
Here’s a look at recent scholarship from Stanford Sociology faculty and doctoral students during the 2025–26 academic year. If we’ve missed a publication, please let us know and we’ll be happy to add it. Email palmprints [at] stanford.edu (palmprints[at]stanford[dot]edu)
Building Law and Society and Sociology
Asad L. Asad — Law & Society Review
Vargas Nunez, Cesar D., Sakshina Bhatt, Basil F. Seif, Fernando S. Mendoza, David D. Laitin, and Asad L. Asad — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Asad L. Asad, Filiz Garip, and Jackelyn Hwang — The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
A framework for bridging conventional and critical perspectives on immigrant assimilation
Asad L. Asad and Nima Dahir — Ethnic and Racial Studies
Americans favor predistributive over redistributive economic policies
David Broska, Jonne Kamphorst, and Robb Willer — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Cultural Study of Law and Social Crisis
Matthew Clair — Annual Review of Law and Social Science
A Relational Theory of Inequality in the Criminal Legal System.
Matthew Clair — Sociology Compass
Yiwei Quian, Tianli Feng, M Du, H Zhang, E Zhang, Sarah Eve Dill — Scientific Reports
An Audit of Social Science Survey Experiments
Tamkinat Rauf, Jan Gerrit Voelkel, James Druckman, Jeremy Freese — Public Opinion Quarterly
Courthouse funneling: How organizational mechanisms teach tenants to bargain in eviction court
Nya Hardaway and Matthew Clair — Law & Society Review
Formatting the two-step gender measure: Experimental insights from the United States
Tessa Holtzman and Aliya Saperstein — Demographic Research
Swan Ye Htut — Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Jackelyn Hwang and Hesu Yoon — Sociological Perspectives
Jackelyn Hwang and Iris H. Zhang — City & Community
Jackelyn Hwang, Elizabeth Roberto, Francine Stephens, and Jacob S. Rugh — Social Forces
The Division of Rationalized Labor
Michelle Jackson — Harvard University Press
Michelle Jackson and Christof Brandtner — Social Forces
Michelle Jackson, Britiny Cook, and Kassandra Roeser — Annual Review of Sociology
Michelle Jackson — Journal of Cultural Economy
Social stratification, Fifth edition
Michelle Jackson, Nima Dahir, Claire Daviss, and David Grusky, co-editors — Routledge
“You're Supposed to Say White”: Epistemic Ambiguity and Ethnoracial Classification
Hye Jee Kim and Aliya Saperstein — Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Cultural Polarization in Taiwan: The Emergence of Moral Issue Partisanship, 2000–2024.
Louis Liang-Yu Ko — Journal of East Asian Studies
Qiwei Lin, Derek Ouyang, C. Guage, Isabel O. Gallegos, Jacob Goldin — Scientific Data
Profit or Protection? Evictions and Housing Dynamics in Immigrant Neighborhoods
Lillian Leung, Renee Louis, J Rangel, Matthew Desmond — City & Community
The Impacts of Repeated Disasters on School Attendance and Learning
Tyler W. McDaniel — Russell Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences
Collateral Decision-Making: The Case of Pretrial Detention and the Criminal Courts
Caylin Louis Moore — American Sociological Review
Policing now, Gentrification Later? The Case of Civil Gang Injunctions in Los Angeles
Caylin Louis Moore and Rebecca D. Gleit — Urban Affairs Review
In Search of Lost Time—Finding 314 Million Missing Years
David H. Rehkopf — JAMA Network Open
Validity of Area-Based Social Risk Indices Used at Higher-Level Geographies and Clinic Locations
Nathaniel Hendrix, Nicole Gladish, Neil S. Kamdar, and David H. Rehkopf — JAMA Network Open
The policy exposome of dementia: Gaps, opportunities, and research agenda
Clémence Kieny, Geraldine Marks, [...], and David H. Rehkopf — The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Iván Mejía-Guevara, Mark R. Cullen, Shripad Tuljapurkar, Vyjeyanthi S. Periyakoil, David H. Rehkopf — Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Michael J. Rosenfeld and Alisa Feldman — Journal of Marriage and Family
Aliya Saperstein and Shelley Correll — ASA Social Psychology Quarterly.
Chronic Disease and Aging-Related Risk Factors in Multiracial Subgroups: California, 2014–2023
Tracy Lam-Hine, Michelle C. Odden, Aliya Saperstein, Tainayah W. Thomas, David H. Rehkopf — Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
The Untapped Social Capital of International Students in Japan and Korea
Gi-Wook Shin — International Higher Education
The US alliance and public attitudes toward China: evidence from the Asia-Pacific region
Gidong Kim and Gi-Wook Shin — Australian Journal of International Affairs
“What Do I Do with All of These Data?”: A New Pragmatist Framework for Coding and Analysis
Forrest Stuart and Krystal Laryea — Qualitative Sociology
Andrew G. Walder — Annual Review of Sociology
Gendered expectations of future work-family conflict in the legal profession
Meghan Warner and Matt Clair — American Journal of Cultural Sociology
Helen Webley-Brown and Lauren Sukin — International Studies Quarterly
Large language models can predict the results of social science experiments
Ashwini Ashokkumar, Luke Hewitt, Isaias Ghezae, and Robb Willer — Nature
Huge meta-research project puts claims in social-science papers to the test
Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar, Jelte M. Wicherts, and Robb WIller — Nature
A registered report megastudy on the persuasiveness of the most-cited climate messages
Jane K. Willenbring, Neil Malhotra, and Robb Willer — Nature Climate Change
Labeling messages as AI-generated does not reduce their persuasive effects
Federico Bianchi, Izzy Gainsburg, Dan Jurafsky, and Robb Willer — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nexus
Representativeness and response validity across nine opt-in online samples
Adam J. Berinsky, Antonio Alonso Arechar, and Robb Willer — Nature Human Behavior
Brittany C. Solomon, Jan G. Voelkel, James Y. Chu, and Robb Willer — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The way back after backsliding: public opinion and the restoration of democracy
Kristian Frederisksen and Robb Willer — Comparative Political Studies
A Roadmap for Inequality Research: Transparency, Intersectionality, and Multiple Measures of Race
Emma Williams-Baron and Aliya Saperstein — Sociological Science.
Hiring the ideal remote worker: the gendered implications of the rise of remote work
Claire Daviss, Emma Williams-Baron, and Erin Macke — Social Forces