Benjamin Cornwell

Benjamin Thomas Cornwell (born April 30, 1978) is an American sociologist. He is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2007, where he studied under Edward Laumann, Linda Waite, and Jason Beckfield. He develops sociological methods and applies them to a variety of issues, including social inequality, epidemics, health, and disasters.

Benjamin Cornwell
Benjamin Cornwell (Ithaca, New York, 2023)
Born (1978-04-30) April 30, 1978
Huntington, West Virginia
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Known forContributions to social network analysis, sequence analysis
SpouseErin York Cornwell
Scientific career
FieldsSociology, Social epidemiology
InstitutionsCornell University
Doctoral advisorEdward Laumann
Other academic advisorsLinda Waite, Jason Beckfield
Notable studentsAlyssa Goldman, Daniel DellaPosta, Fedor Dokshin
InfluencesEdward Laumann, Donald N. Levine, James Moody, Ronald Stuart Burt, Linda Waite, Andrew Abbott

Biography

Benjamin Cornwell was born to Thomas and Susan (Smith) Cornwell in 1978 in Huntington, West Virginia. Through his great-grandmother, Edna Alice (Hatfield) Smith, he is a cousin of Devil Anse Hatfield and Henry D. Hatfield. His 4th great-grandfather is Thomas Hannan, a revolutionary war soldier and Anglo settler of the Kanawha River region of Virginia (now West Virginia)[1]

Scholarly career

He earned his B.A. in sociology in 2000 at the University of Cincinnati, his M.A. at Ohio State University in 2001, and his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago in 2007. His dissertation was titled Physical Function and Social Action: Implications for Social Connectedness, which argues that health is an important factor in determining individuals' positions within larger social networks.[2][3] During his time as a student at Chicago, he was a research assistant for the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, on which he eventually became a co-investigator.

He also served for several years as a teaching intern and research assistant for Donald N. Levine while at Chicago. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging. He was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell in 2008, and was appointed as chair of that department in 2020, during the height of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

His research has advanced sociological methods, particularly in the areas of social network analysis and sequence analysis.[4][5][6][7][8] One of his most important papers, co-authored with Kim Weeden, used data on the networks of students on college campuses to demonstrate that the risk of the epidemic spread of SARS-CoV-2 could be curbed by shutting down particularly large classes and moving them online.[9][10]

He used national survey data to show that while older adults tend to have smaller social networks than do younger adults (e.g., due to repeated personal losses), they are generally more involved in community activities than are younger people.[11] As a result, they are usually able to replace lost network ties with new ones, leading to homeostasis in their social networks.[12] [13]

His work on the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire has shown how people's risk of dying in an emergency evacuation is associated with how they are tied to the other people who are present when the disaster occurs. Those who are present with a larger group, and/or with closer contacts whom they are less willing to abandon, are more likely to die.[14][15]

In 2017, the American Sociological Association's section on methodology awarded Cornwell the Leo Goodman award for distinctive contributions to sociological methodology, in recognition of his work in social network analysis and sequence analysis. He is an inaugural member of the international Sequence Analysis Association's advisory board.

Selected scholarly works
  • Carr, Deborah, Shelley Correll, Robert Crosnoe, Jeremy Freese, Mary Waters, Benjamin Cornwell, and Elizabeth Boyle. 2017. The Art and Science of Social Research. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
  • Cornwell, Benjamin. 2015. Social Sequence Analysis. New York: Cambridge.
  • Cornwell, Benjamin, Jonathan Gershuny, and Oriel Sullivan. 2019. “The Social Structure of Time: Emerging Trends and New Directions.” Annual Review of Sociology 45:301-320
  • Cornwell, Benjamin, Alyssa Goldman, and Edward O. Laumann. "Homeostasis Revisited: Patterns of Stability and Rebalancing in Older Adults’ Social Lives." The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 76, no. 4 (2021): 778-789.
  • Cornwell, Benjamin, and Jing-Mao Ho. 2022. "Network Structure in Small Groups and Survival in Disasters." Social Forces 100:1357-1384.
  • Cornwell, Benjamin, and Edward O. Laumann. 2011. “Network Position and Sexual Dysfunction: Implications of Partner Betweenness for Men.” American Journal of Sociology 117:172-208.
  • Cornwell, Benjamin, Edward O. Laumann, and L. Philip Schumm. 2008. “The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile.” American Sociological Review 73:185-203.
  • Weeden, Kim, and Benjamin Cornwell. 2020. “The Small World Network of College Classes: Implications for Epidemic Spread on a University Campus.” Sociological Science.

References
  1. National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 2020. National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution 2019 Member Directory. Dallas, Texas: PCI.
  2. Cornwell, Benjamin. Physical Function and Social Action: Implications for Social Connectedness. The University of Chicago, 2007
  3. Cornwell, Benjamin. 2009. “Good Health and the Bridging of Structural Holes.” Social Networks 31:92-103.
  4. Cornwell, Benjamin. 2018. “Network Analysis of Sequence Structures.” In Sequence Analysis and Related Methods: Innovative Methods and Applications, edited by Gilbert Ritschard and Matthias Studer. Springer.
  5. Cornwell, Benjamin, and Jake Burchard. 2019. “Structural Cohesion and Embeddedness in Two-Mode Networks.” The Journal of Mathematical Sociology 43:179-194.
  6. Cornwell, Benjamin, Edward O. Laumann, L. Philip Schumm, Juyeon Kim, and Young-Jin Kim. 2014. “Measurement of Longitudinal Egocentric Social Networks in a National Survey.” Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences 69:S75-S82.
  7. York Cornwell, Erin, and Benjamin Cornwell. 2008. “Access to Expertise as a Form of Social Capital: An Examination of Race- and Class-Based Disparities in Network Ties to Experts.” Sociological Perspectives 51:853-76.
  8. Skaathun, Britt, Dexter R. Voisin, Benjamin Cornwell, Diane S. Lauderdale, and John A. Schneider. 2018. “A Longitudinal Examination of Factors Associated with Network Bridging among YMSM: Implications for HIV Prevention.” AIDS & Behavior 23:13261338
  9. Weeden, Kim, and Benjamin Cornwell. 2020. "The Small World Network of College Classes: Implications for Epidemic Spread on a University Campus." Sociological Science
  10. Weeden, Kim A., Benjamin Cornwell, and Barum Park. 2021. “Still a Small World? University Course Enrollment Networks before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Sociological Science
  11. Cornwell, Benjamin, Edward O. Laumann, and L. Philip Schumm. 2008. “The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile.” American Sociological Review 73:185-203.
  12. Cornwell, Benjamin, Alyssa Goldman, and Edward O. Laumann. 2021. "Homeostasis Revisited: Patterns of Stability and Rebalancing in Older Adults’ Social Lives." The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 76:778-789
  13. Cornwell, Benjamin and Edward O. Laumann. 2015. “The Health Benefits of Network Growth: New Evidence from a National Survey of Older Adults.” Social Science & Medicine 125:94-106.
  14. Cornwell, Benjamin, and Jing-Mao Ho. "Network Structure in Small Groups and Survival in Disasters." Social Forces 100:1357-1384
  15. Cornwell, Benjamin. 2003. “Bonded Fatalities: The Effects of Social Bond Strength on Fatality Risk in a Fire Evacuation.” The Sociological Quarterly 44:617-38.
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