Broadly, my research has focused on three substantive areas related to US health and mortality, with specific attention given to the social origins of the disease and mortality patterns we observe in the US population: 1) long-term trends in race/ethnic disparities in all-cause and cause-specific adult mortality rates, and the social, political, and economic conditions that shape these disparities, 2) the association between the US obesity epidemic and adult mortality rates, and the increasing effect that obesity has on US longevity, and 3) the long-term health effects of early-life adversity. I have also grown increasingly interested in the methodological approaches to addressing all three of these substantive areas of quantitative inquiry. As such, some of my recent work has been focused on advancing new ways to address these questions with statistical techniques.
keywords
life course, health, mortality, social demography, quantitative methods
SOCY 2061 - Introduction to Social Statistics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022
Introduces students to quantitative analysis of social phenomena. Emphasizes understanding and proper interpretation of graphs; measures of central tendency, dispersion, and association; and the concept of statistical significance. Assumes students have only limited mathematical background.
SOCY 4052 - Social Inequalities in Health
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Focuses on social inequalities in health in both U.S. and international contexts. Reviews the link between health status and various types of social statuses, including but not limited to socioeconomic status, gender, race and ethnicity. Explanations for the relationships between these factors and various health outcomes are discussed. Focuses on multiple levels of analysis, from the physician-patient interactions to health care systems and social policies. Students have the opportunity to develop their own specific research interests in this field.
SOCY 5111 - Data 1: Introduction to Social Statistics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Introduces statistical analysis in the social sciences. Introduces basic techniques of inferential statistics and several bivariate statistical techniques including t-test for the difference in means, chi-square independence, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and simple regression (OLS). Prepares students for the required course on multivariate regression techniques (Data 2).
SOCY 6111 - Data 2: Data Analysis
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019
Introduces students to mainstream multivariate regression techniques used in the social sciences. The majority of the course focuses on the Ordinary Least Square model and on the extension of this model to nominal, ordinal and count dependent variables. Students analyze data of their choosing with statistical software packages including SPSS, SAS, and STATA. Department prerequisite: SOCY 5111 or equivalent.
SOCY 6821 - Graduate Sociology Forum 1
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Introduces first-year graduate students to the full range of substantive topics, research programs, and other projects in which graduate sociology faculty are engaged. Provides a forum in which issues of the discipline are presented and discussed. Features weekly presentations by graduate sociology faculty.
SOCY 6831 - Graduate Professional Seminar
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Offers guidance and instruction on topics related to advanced graduate study and academic life beyond graduation. Discussions will include writing journal articles; creating a vitae; writing dissertations; applying for grants and other sources of funding; the academic job search; and what to expect as a junior faculty member.
SOCY 7111 - Data III--Advanced Data Analysis
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2023
Denotes third graduate course in sequence of quantitative methods. Following basic inferential statistics (SOCY 5111) and multivariate regression analysis (SOCY 6111), students study advanced statistical techniques such as event history analysis, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, and latent class analysis. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours when topics vary.
SOCY 7141 - Third-year Paper Seminar
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Guides graduate students through the creation of the required third-year paper and helps establish productive writing habits. Includes assigned readings, discussion, peer review, and specific tasks related to scholarly writing. Students will revise and defend the paper during the semester following the seminar. Department enforced prereqs., SOCY 5111 and SOCY 5201.
