Mathematical Sociologist
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Section Officers: Chair Jane Sell Texas A&M ([email protected]) Chair-Elect Phillip Bonacich Mathematical Sociologist University of California, Los Ange- les ([email protected]) VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1 FALL/WINTER 2012 - 2 0 1 3 Past Chair Noah Friedkin University of California, Santa Barbara Greeting from the Chair...Jane Sell ([email protected]) Secretary-Treasurer Dear Mathematical Sociology In this edition of the John Skvoretz Section Members, newsletter, you will find the University of South Florida ([email protected]) I am happy to report that our announcement of our awards section is vibrant and strong. and the chairs of the com- Council Members I would like to thank our past mittees. Please nominate your Since 2014 Chair, Noah Friedkin for his colleagues and your students Matthew Brashears leadership in the past year. for these awards. Cornell University The August ASA meetings ([email protected]) I want to especially were truly exciting and well Arnout van de Rijt thank the council members who SUNY Stony Brook University attended. We will be hearing (Arnout.VanDeRijt@ have all been incredibly respon- from Noah again this year, in stonybrook.edu ) sive and have often volunteered part because our section’s Since 2015 to help out the section. James D. Montgomery bylaws place the past chair as the chair of University of Wisconsin, Madison ([email protected]) the nominations committee. Special thanks to our newsletter editors, Pamela Emanuelson and Donna Matthew J. Salganik Based on discussions during last Lancianese, for their energy and skill in Princeton University year’s ASA, we decided to make both of ([email protected]) putting together our newsletter. our available sessions as open sessions. Since 2016 Delia Baldassarri Our two sessions are organized around I want to draw attention to our New York University Theoretical Developments in Mathemati- website which is a truly wonderful source ([email protected]) cal Sociology: Group Processes and Dy- of information. I would also like to en- Damon M. Centola Massachusetts Institute of namics (organized by Brent Simpson) and courage all to include data on the website. Technology Theoretical Developments in Mathemati- ([email protected]) cal Sociology: Population Structures and INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Student Member Dynamics (organized by Mark Fossett). Zack W. Almquist, Please think about encouraging folks to Greetings from the Chair 1-2 University of Minnesota ([email protected]) submit to these two sessions and sub- Call for Award Nominations 2 Newsletter Editor mitting your own work. Pamela Emanuelson North Dakota State University The third session will be our busi- Section Awards 2012-2013 3 ([email protected]) ness meeting and then a special address by Donna Lancianese John Skvoretz, the Coleman Award winner Graduate Student Highlights 4-5 University of Iowa ([email protected]) from 2012. I would like to see “The Cole- man Address” to become a regular part of Webmaster Section Annual Report 6-7 Matthew Brashears our section. It provides an important ven- Cornell University Annual Treasurer Report ([email protected]) ue to highlight our section, and to honor 8-9 the award winner. I am looking forward to hearing John’s address and am anticipating Professional Workshops 10 some surprises. Conference Announcements and Pub- 12 lications P A G E 2 VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1 Such data sharing will enable different analyses of course, but additionally, having the data and enough information about the data (and its collection) will help develop replications. Replication is a continuing concern in all scientific endeavors. However, recently the issues involved in replication, especially in psychological social psychology, has gar- nered special attention. Parts of these recent controversies relate to actual falsification of data, but there are many other issues in replication other than solving blatant falsity. In a recent open letter, Daniel Kahneman provides a spe- cific challenge for replication (http://www.nature.com/news/nobel-laureate-challenges-psychologists-to-clean-up-their-act-1.11535). And, con- nected to the issue of replication as it relates to “undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis,” Simmons, Nel- son and Simonsohn in Psychological Science, 2011, argue that common (and accepted) practices in experimental re- search lead to false positive findings. (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/22/11/1359) While the article specifically con- cerns experimental research, many of the suggested “Requirements for Authors” relate to all kinds of methodology. Mathematical Sociology Outstanding Dissertation A Call For Nominations…. in Progress Award This award provides a grant of $1,500 to meet some of the scholarly expenses of a student whose Mathematical Sociology dissertation employs mathematics in an inter- esting, imaginative or ingenious way to advance sociological knowledge. The applicant should sub- Awards for 2014 mit a copy of his or her approved dissertation pro- posal, with a list of any requirements added by the graduate committee. The packet should also in- Graduate Student Paper Award This award is presented for the best clude a letter of support from the student’s spon- paper written by a graduate student that makes a significant contri- sor, which describes the student’s qualifications for bution to mathematical sociology. Papers can be published or un- the completed task and the potential importance published. The submission can consist of a dissertation chapter, but of the project. The requirements include member- not the entire dissertation. The submission must have been written ship in the ASA and the mathematical sociology or published during the three years prior to the award year. The section during the period to be covered by the author/first author must be a graduate student at the time of sub- grant. Please send a copy of the dissertation pro- mission, and all authors must be graduate students when the paper posal and a nomination letter by February 1, 2014 was written. Nominations and self-nominations are welcome. Please to: send a copy of the paper and a nomination letter by February 1, 2014 to: Matthew Brashears 366 Uris Hall Cornell Universi- ty Ithaca, New York 14853-7601, Arnout Van de Rijt Department of Sociology State University of [email protected] New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook, New York 11794-4356 [email protected] James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Award: The Distinguished Career Award recognizes a lifetime of contributions to the field of Mathematical Sociology. A letter of nomination should outline the candidate's activities Outstanding Article Publication Award This award honors an article of lasting significance in mathematical sociology, conducted over the that has made an outstanding contribution to mathematical sociolo- course of her or his career. The nomination also should include a copy of gy. Eligible articles must have been published during the three years the candidate's curriculum vitae, and an assurance that the candidate has prior to the award year. Please send a copy of the article and a nom- given permission to be nominated for the award. Nominations must ination letter by February 1, 2014 to: come from American Sociological Association members. Please send materials by February 1, 2104 to: Delia Baldassarri, 295 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10012 New York University, [email protected] John Skvoretz, Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33630, [email protected] P A G E 3 VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1 Outstanding Publication Award Lincoln Quillian Segregation and Poverty Concentration: The Role of Three Segregations American Sociological Review, 77: 354-379 Harrison White Outstanding Book Award Noah Friedkin and Eugene Johnsen Social Influence Network Theory: A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics Cambridge University Press, 2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award Charles Seguin Cultural Superstardom from Multiple Mechanisms: Two Mathematical Models of Cultural Object Popularity James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Award: The Distinguished Career Award recognizes a lifetime of contributions to the field of Mathematical Sociology. A letter of nomination should outline the candidate's activities of lasting significance in mathematical sociology, conducted over the Outstanding Dissertation in Progress course of her or his career. The nomination also should include a copy of the candidate's curriculum vitae, and an assurance that the candidate has Zack Almquist given permission to be nominated for the award. Nominations must come from American Sociological Association members. Please send Vertex Processes in Social Networks materials by February 1, 2104 to: Akshay Patil . John Skvoretz, Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Analyzing Dynamics in Online Social Networks Tampa, FL 33630, [email protected] P A G E 4 Emma Smith University of California, HIGHLIGHTS Irvine GRADUATE STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICAL SOCIOLOGY Emma Smith is a mathematical soci- primarily with data from the American Social Fabric Project ologist whose primary research (ASFP), led by Professor Butts. This project consists of spa- interests are in social network anal- tially- stratified samples of the adult non-institutionalized ysis, mathematical modeling of so- population at both the Southern California regional level and cial systems, and computational the Western United States level, as well as a population statistics. Her background involves oversample