Thomas Davidson, PhD Student in Sociology, works with Michael Macy

Department of Sociology

 The department is known for the cutting-edge research of its faculty and for its exceptionally strong graduate and undergraduate training programs.

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.

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Events

Apr 25
Friday

National Identification on Twitter or How to Find a Needle in a Haystack with LLMs, Prof. Bart Bonikowski

Friday, Apr, 25 - 03:00 PM

Clark Hall 291

This is a inperson event.

Description

Description:

People possess multiple identities, the relative salience of which responds dynamically to social context. Whether one thinks of oneself as a parent, an employee, a spouse, a particular gender, or an American varies from place to place and time to time. National identity in particular is a crucial master frame through which people understand their sense of collective belonging and their political choices. Yet, research on national identification has been limited to cross-sectional data, often gathered using single survey items, which fail to take into account the contextually of identity. With large-scale social media data a different approach is possible. Our study traces daily fluctuations in American identification using a random sample of U.S. Twitter/X users between 2012 and 2022. Because identifying tweets that engage with nationhood is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack, we employ few-shot classification using Llama 2, a large language model, combined with fine-tuning to further improve model performance. Our findings reveal that American identification rises and falls in a patterned manner, partly in response to nation-relevant events widely reported in the media. We show which events have the largest impact on nationalism time trends, estimate the collective half-life of identification events, and examine which events are politically galvanizing versus polarizing. In particular, we find that national identification gained chronic salience after 2016, when it first became a central point of contention in U.S. presidential elections.

Bio:

Bart Bonikowski is Associate Professor of Sociology and Politics at New York University. Using relational survey methods, computational text analysis, and experimental research, his work applies insights from cultural sociology to the study of politics in the United States and Europe, with a particular focus on nationalism, populism, and radical-right parties. 

Crowd around a fountain

What is Sociology?

Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts.

Because all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to religious cults; from the divisions of race, gender, and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports.

Because sociology addresses the most challenging issues of our time, it is a rapidly expanding field whose potential is increasingly tapped by those who craft policies and create programs.

If you think you might be interested in Sociology, start by taking a class. Or, learn more about the major.

Professor Michael Macy with a grad student

The Graduate Program

Cornell’s Graduate Field of Sociology provides top-notch training toward the PhD in Sociology, and has long been known for its emphasis on both theoretical innovation and methodological rigor. The Field, which is much larger than the Department, has close to thirty faculty members. 

Click here to explore our graduate program.

Sociology Jeopardy

Jeopardy!

Check out the Department's Jeopardy! display case on the 3rd floor of Uris Hall and the corresponding Jeopardy! page, home to solutions, history, and a place where you can share your trivia ideas with us. 

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