Research Clusters

Research in this cluster examines the causes and consequences of cross-national, cross-cultural variations in social processes.  

The study of crime and punishment has become increasingly central to our understanding of how society works. Crime varies widely across time and place, for example, and is deeply intertwined with multiple forms of social stratification. 

The interest in studying culture empirically has been growing dramatically within the discipline, and Harvard has emerged as a leading center for cultural sociology...

The department continues a long history of studying economic and organizational phenomena from a sociological perspective. Research questions range from family decisions to immigrate to organizational strategies for profitability to national choices of welfare policies. 

Schools and colleges are transforming the lives of individual learners and their families. They play a core role in society. At the same time, they are continuously transformed by politics, markets, and scientific, technological, and cultural change.

Research in this cluster explores the ways in which gender, sexuality, and kinship relations shape individuals’ experiences. We view gender and the family as distinct but often overlapping dimensions of social stratification...

Scholars of the Health and Population cluster study the sociological causes and consequences of  dynamics and differences in aging, migration, fertility, mortality, health, and well-being...

The cluster on inequality brings together work in a variety of fields -- on health, education, incomes, housing, families. organizations and meaning making in the United States and beyond...

This cluster explores interdisciplinary scholarship in socio-economic, cultural and political history. The focus is on the nature, dynamics and interacting influences of culture, politics and institutions, explored at all levels of analysis.

This cluster focuses on racial and ethnic stratification in the United States, the changing meaning of race and ethnicity over time, racial and ethnic identity and its measurement and content, and the patterns of immigration and immigrant integration in the U.S. and Western Europe...

For the first time in human history, more people today live in cities than in rural areas.  In a  generation, over 70% of the world is expected to be urbanized...