Vanderbilt University - Department of Sociology


	Daniel B. Cornfield received the 2008 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award for distinguished accomplishments at furthering the aims of Vanderbilt University. He is now focusing his energy as founding director of the new transdisciplinary Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies. Cornfield has had great impact on a number of programs including: enhancing the reputation of our sociology department�s research on labor issues while he served as chair; putting together an interdisciplinary, inter-university team to study Nashville�s immigrant community and its social services needs while serving as acting director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies; and editing the scholarly journal Work and Occupations.

	Tony Brown will be the Faculty Head of House for the Hank Ingram House in the Vanderbilt Commons, which will open to first-year students in Fall 2008. Check out this video with Tony Brown's list of his 5 reasons to be Faculty Head of House(Click here to watch video)

	Lary Isaac delivered the Presidential Address to the Southern Sociological Society on April 11 entitled, "Movement of Movements: Culture Moves in the Long Civil Rights Struggle." He also received a 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to support his research on capitalist militias in the Gilded Age.


Sociology is a dynamic and integral part of Vanderbilt University, and Vanderbilt sociology is a vital and visible part of the national and international profession of sociology. At Vanderbilt University, the research and teaching of the sociology faculty addresses a broad set of enduring themes of scholarly and practical interest. The thematic diversity of Vanderbilt sociology stems from not only the wide-ranging interests and methodological competencies of the faculty, but also our strong commitment to academic freedom. Our faculty research expertise and undergraduate and graduate teaching curricula encompass several major sociological themes, including:
	the development and patterning of social inequality in life chances and behavior by class, race-ethnicity, and gender;
	the social psychological relationship between self and society and problems over the individual life course that pertain to identity formation, human emotions, stress, mental health, and aging;
	the institutionalization of power and powerlessness and the structure and consequences of institutions and social movements involving nation-states, work organizations, agencies of economic development, and the women's, civil rights, and labor movements;
	the emergence and interpenetration of societal cultural values, religion, science, and education and their consequences for economic consumption, socioeconomic status attainment, and inter-group relations;
	cross-national patterns in economic development and demographic trends;
	and, the patterning and prevalence of crime and deviant behavior and the institutionalization of social controls of deviant behavior.