Stanford Sociology
PhDs on the Market
2009-2010
Brandy Aven
I am a PhD candidate in the sociology program at Stanford. Presently, I am completing my dissertation on diffusion processes, communication patterns, and social influence within organizations, particularly looking at the spread of corrupt innovations and sentiment. Using both social network and semantic analysis, I am investigating email exchanges from the Enron Email Corpus. This is longitudinal study consisting of both professional and personal communications. My past research includes reputations and reputation systems in markets. I have investigated both online markets, such as eBay, and in emerging economies.
My interests include: organizational behavior, economic sociology, social networks, and social psychology.
Job Talk Paper: “Intra-organizational Networks of Innovations: An Analysis of Legitimate and Corrupt Innovation Adoption”
Dissertation: “Intra-organizational Diffusion of Innovations and Sentiments: An Analysis of Enron”
Committee: Walter Powell (chair), Karen Cook, Mark Granovetter and Henning Hillmann
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Joon Nak Choi (JC)
My research uses social network analysis to investigate consequential phenomena in finance and policymaking. My dissertation examines how local- and global-scale social networks affect hedge fund investment returns--and risk management. This project brings together insights from several different literatures, including social networks, industrial clusters, global cities and the sociology of finance. My other major project focuses on the social networks linking the U.S. policy elite, and the way this network affects key policy decisions.
Dissertation: “Information Advantage in a Global Economy: Geography, Social Networks
and Hedge Fund Returns.”
Committee: Mark Granovetter (Chair), Gi-wook Shin, Walter W. Powell, Dan McFarland (prospectus), W. Richard Scott (prospectus)
dissertation abstract
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Jonathan Haynes
My research interests are situated at the intersection of economic sociology, social networks, collective action, and network dynamics.
My research to date focuses on how variations in the structure of social networks impact the potential for information flow, and thereby knowledge transfer and innovation. I am particularly interested in the mutually generative nature of social action and social structure, as well as the tools and techniques necessary for studying large-scale social systems. I especially enjoy teaching these topics and currently teach an interdisciplinary-oriented course on social network analysis.
Dissertation: "Labor Mobility and Social Structure."
Committee: M. Granovetter (Chair); S. Olzak; and D. McFarland
dissertation abstract
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Xiaobin He
My research interests focus broadly on social stratification and inequality, economic and organizational sociology, social networks, and quantitative research methods. My dissertation examines the changing mechanisms of social stratification during the market transition since 1979 in China. Unlike most market transition literature, which assume either a market-centered, a property-rights centered, or a state-market interaction perspective by almost exclusively studying income inequality, my property transformation perspective integrates marketization, ownership restructuring, and state politics into a theoretical framework simultaneously by investigating wealth accumulation and wealth disparity among different social groups, organizations and sectors during the post socialist transformation.
Dissertation: “Property Transformation, Marketization and Wealth Inequality in Transitional China: 1988, 1995 and 2002.”
Committee: Andrew Walder (Chair), Mark Granovetter, Xueguang Zhou, Jean Oi, David Grusky
dissertation abstract
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Yan Li
Yan will be a visiting assistant professor at Reed College starting Fall 2009.
I study social inequality and its social psychological foundations and my research intersects inequality, social psychology, gender, race and ethnicity, immigration, Asia and Asian America, and social change. My dissertation explores ideologies of inequality by studying the variations in Asian immigrants’ acquisition or adaptation of racial and gender stereotypes in the U.S., and the cross-cultural and structural constraints and facilitators of such ideological assimilation.
Dissertation: “Ideological Osmosis: Asian Immigrants’ Understanding of Race and Gender Inequalities.”
Committee: C. Ridgeway (Chair); A. Walder; and M. McDermott
dissertation abstract
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Alex Makarevich
My research interests include organizations, inter- and intra-organizational networks, labor market changes, and corporate entrepreneurship.
The dissertation I am now completing integrates relational (network) factors emphasized by the social exchange perspective and ecological factors emphasized by organizational ecology and demography to account for organizational survival. Using both longitudinal data on venture capital organizations in the US and interviews with select venture capital firms, I am studying how inter-organizational ties affect organizations’ chances of survival. My past research was on corporate venturing and the “new economy”.
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Elizabeth McClintock
My research focuses on romantic and sexual relationships, particularly in late adolescence and early adulthood. I am interested in partner selection and relationship formation as well as in dynamics of negotiation and compromise within established relationships. I believe that sexual and romantic relationships and experiences are vital in shaping an individual’s life course and in perpetuating, or possibly altering, gender, class, and racial inequality. I am also interested in the importance of physical attractiveness, both as it procures desirability and power in the partner market and as it relates to self-image. More information on my research interests and paper abstracts are available on my website.
Dissertation: "Beauty, Money, and Love: Getting what you want in romantic relationships."
Committee: Paula England (chair), Michael Rosenfeld, Nancy Tuma
dissertation abstract
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Emily Shafer
In my research I seek to understand how gender shapes and is shaped by modern marriage and family. I am motivated by the puzzling fact that trends toward gender equality have stalled in recent years. I believe that understanding the intersection of gender and family is fundamental to understanding these trends. Among other projects I have examined how wives' wages relative to their husbands' promote their labor force exit, as well as how marriage influences health outcomes. I am currently exploring how a woman's surname choice in marriage affects how she is perceived as a wife and employee and how gender role attitudes and child rearing behavior are shaped by the family environment.