Stanford PhDs on the Market
2007-2008
Colin J. Beck
My research is primarily in the areas of political sociology and social movements with macro, historical, and comparative approaches. I am particularly interested in how society and culture shape political action. I have taught undergraduate courses in political sociology, research methodology and writing, and terrorism.
Dissertation: "Ideological Roots of Global Waves of Revolution.”
Committee: J. Meyer (Chair); D. McAdam; and A. Bergesen
dissertation abstract
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Paul Yunsik Chang
My dissertation is a study of South Korea’s democracy movement during the most authoritarian period in that country’s modern history. With the help of other researchers, I created a dyadic-structured dataset which includes variables relating to both protest and repression events. In addition, we included a linking variable that shows the connections between events and thus can create a network of events. In the dissertation I argue that the emergence and evolution of social movements are predicated upon the dialectical interplay between challengers and challenged groups. I hope to contribute to the empirical literature in Korean studies as well as the theoretical literature on social movements.
Dissertation: “Protest and Repression in South Korea (1970 – 1979): Developing a Dialectical Understanding of Social Movements.”
Committee: G.W. Shin (Chair); S. Olzak; and D. McAdam
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Alexandra Gerbasi
My research interests could best be described as focusing on the social determinates of trust, with special attention to types of interaction, social networks, power inequality and rates of cooperation. My Ph.D. was conferred in September of 2007. I am now a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences at Stanford University. I am continuing my work examining the effects of transitions between types of exchange, and beginning a project that examines how the structural variation in intra-organizational networks impact trust relations within the organizations.
Dissertation: "Attribution and Commitment in Different Types of Exchange.”
Committee: K. Cook (Chair); C. Ridgeway; and M. Zelditch Jr.
dissertation abstract
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MariaElena Gonzalez
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“Organizational Expansion and Change in the Roman Catholic Church: 1950-2000.”
Committee: J. Meyer (Chair); F. Ramirez; and M. Zelditch Jr.
Jeong-woo Koo
My interests include comparative-historical sociology, organizations, sociology of education, political sociology, quantitative method, and East-Asian studies. My dissertation explores a long term political competition between the state and civil society in pre and early modern Korea. I am currently working on two projects, one on the worldwide expansion of international human rights and its impact on nation-states (with John Meyer and Francisco Ramirez), and the other on the formation of regionalism in East Asia (with Gi-Wook Shin). My publications include “The Origins of the Public Sphere and Civil Society: Private Academies and Petitions in Korea, 1506-1800,” Social Science History 31: 381-409
Dissertation: “The Rise and Fall of Confucian Civil Society: Political Competition between Academies and State in Chosŏn Korea.”
Committee: G.W. Shin (Chair), J. Meyer, M. Granovetter, and W. Powell
dissertation abstract
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Yan Li
My primary research interests are social psychology, race and gender, and immigration. My dissertation, "Immigrants' Changing Ideologies of Race and Gender Inequalities," studies whether and how immigrants to the United States acquire dominant ideologies of social inequalities in the forms of racial and gender stereotypes, perceptions of and rationales for existing inequalities, and policy attitudes.
Note: Yan Li was profiled in the "Newsletter of the Social Psychology Section of the American Sociological Association" See article in Vol. 11 - No. 1 - Spring 2007
Dissertation: “Immigrants’ Changing Ideologies of Race and Gender Inequalities.”
Committee: C. Ridgeway (Chair); A. Walder; and M. McDermott
dissertation abstract
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Reuben J. Thomas
I study interpersonal social networks, and how they are related to other social phenomena. My research to date has looked at how the prehistorical emergence of network differences within societies led to the emergence of inherited social inequality, how adolescent networks and affiliations influence transitions into adulthood, how romantic couples meet, and how the network disruption of moving affects segregation.
Dissertation: “Geographic Mobility & Homophily.”
Committee: N. Mark (Co-Chair); P. England (Co-Chair); M. Rosenfeld; D. McFarland; and M. Granovetter
dissertation abstract
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Justine E. Tinkler
My primary research and teaching interests are social inequality, sociology of gender, race and ethnic relations, law and society, and social psychology. My dissertation presents and tests a theory showing how social psychological mechanisms can partly explain why civil rights laws have failed to eliminate race and gender inequality.
Dissertation: “A Social Psychological Analysis of Resistance to Sexual Harassment Law: Implications for Equal Opportunity.”
Committee: C. Ridgeway (Chair); P. England; and R. Sandefur
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Denis Trapido
The dissertation I am now completing is motivated by an empirical puzzle: Why does competition isolate and alienate some economic actors but reinforce cooperation and positive ties between others? Contrary to influential arguments, my analysis suggests that cooperation among competitors is not susceptible to impersonal exogenous influences such as regional culture and military or economic crisis. Instead, it can be facilitated or impeded by a history of micro-level personal interactions. Thus, if the interaction between competitors involves competition for social status, competition tends to alienate them. On the other hand, if it involves face-to-face interaction in civil society settings such as professional clubs, it facilitates positive ties between competitors.
Dissertation: “Alienating or Binding Contest? Economic Cooperation and Positive Ties among Competitors.”
Committee: M. Granovetter (Chair); H. Hillmann; and W. Powell
dissertation abstract
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Chunlei Wang
My academic interests include Economic Sociology, Business Policy and Strategy, Organization and Management Theory, Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation Management, Quantitative Methods, and Social Network Analysis. My research focuses on a classic sociological
question: how does social structure influence social action? A major theoretical theme of my research is to explore how social networks, competition, and institutions separately and interactively influence the decision making of individuals and organizations. Diffusion of innovation, which can be a product, a policy, or a strategy, is an ideal setting to investigate the influences of social structure on action. In my dissertation, I study the diffusion of market entry into the Internet industry among worldwide venture capital firms from 1994 to 2002.