Fall 2024 Sociology Newsletter

A message from the Chair

Dear Sociology Community!

I write as Interim Chair to welcome you to a new academic year in Uris Hall.  Being “interim” has made me think a lot about “transitions” in and out of institutional roles as well as the beginning of an exciting new year.  

First, I want to thank Ben Cornwell for all the hard work he did as Chair of Sociology for the last four years!  Ben is enjoying a well-deserved sabbatical.  Looking forward!  In January, we will welcome Laura Tach back from her sabbatical and she will assume the role of Department Chair for the next three years.  We have a new Dean in the Arts College, Peter John Loewen, who is beginning the hard work of getting to know us all.  I have met him and look forward to his leadership.   

In the meanwhile, we have others to welcome who are with us in Sociology now.  First, Jan Gerrit Voelkel, who completed his Ph.D. at Stanford last spring. He will serve as a Post Doctoral Fellow at UPenn for one year, and next fall, will assume the role of Assistant Professor here at Cornell, jointly appointed in the Brooks School and the Sociology Department.  We also welcome Conor Gordin-Rhone, who is the Department's new IT Support person.  Conor sits in Room 326.  Drop in and say hello!  In addition, we have a wonderful cohort of eight new graduate students and two visiting scholars, Renee Luthra and Kyle Siler.  They will be sitting in rooms 379 and 324 respectively. Drop in and say hello!!  

We have a vibrant colloquium series lined up for this academic year.  Our intrepid communications and programming assistant and newsletter designer Carrie D'Aprix  has included recent Department accomplishments and upcoming events in this newsletter.  To borrow from current political jargon, I hope you are all “fired up and ready to go” as we begin the new academic year!  I know that I am! 

Best, 

Mabel Berezin

Interim Department Chair

Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology 

Director of the Institute for European Studies 

New Faces in the Department!

New Cohort left to right: Mary, Simon, Jocelyn, Eliza, Camron (behind), Wanru, Emma, Shuhan (upfront)

Beautiful Weather for the Annual Fall Welcome Party 

Upcoming Social Science Events:

Friday, September 20 - 12:00-1:15PM 2250 MVR

Jennifer Candipan (Brown), CPC

Friday, September 27 - 12:00-1:00PM, Location TBA

Jennifer Beam Dowd (Oxford), CAPS Syracuse

Friday, September 27 - 3:00-4:15PM, Location TBA

Haowen Zheng (Cornell Ph.D. candidate), SOC

Friday, October 4 - 12:00-1:15PM, 2250 MVR

Jennifer Barber (Indiana), CPC & CSI (co-sponsor)

Friday, October 18 - 3:00-4:15PM, Location TBA

Juhwan Seo (Cornell Ph.D. candidate), SOC

Friday, October 25 - 10:30-3:00PM, Location TBA

Lisa Berkman (Harvard), Keynote for Annual CAPS conference

Friday, November 1 - 12:00-1:15PM, 2250 MVR

Christina Cross (Harvard), CPC & CSI (co-sponsor)

Thursday, November 7 - 3:00-4:30PM, G08 Uris Hall

Richard E. Ocejo (John Jay College), CPC

Wednesday, November 30 - 3:00-4:30PM, Location TBA

Alejandro Portes (Princeton), CSES

Friday, December 6 - 3:00-4:15PM, G08 Uris Hall

Nate Breznau (University of Bremen), SOC