Sociology Professor Corey D. Fields Named to Prestigious Behavioral Sciences Fellowship at Stanford
Corey D. Fields, an associate professor and Idol Family Term Chair in the Department of Sociology, has been named a 2025-2026 fellow for the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University.
The interdisciplinary research institution, which was founded in 1954, aims to bring together scholars and practitioners in a variety of fields in the social and behavioral sciences and cognate disciplines to advance understanding of human behaviors and societal issues.
“My colleagues and I were thrilled that Corey was awarded this highly competitive, prestigious fellowship,” said Karolyn Tyson, a professor and chair of sociology in the College of Arts & Sciences. “It’s a nice feather in his cap and it elevates the profile of our department.”
During his time at CASBS, Fields will work on a book project that explores discourse around public health and racial inequality in the U.S. The project will draw on two data sources: immersive interviews from the American Voices Project (AVP) and content analysis of public statements about the COVID-19 pandemic and racial inequality protests, Fields said.
“It is terrific to see the significance of Corey Fields’ research recognized with this prestigious fellowship at CASBS,” said David Edelstein, dean of the College. “Professor Fields is engaged in pathbreaking work that will help us better understand the evolution of contemporary American society. I am eager to see the results of this research, and more generally, I am excited for the future of the study and teaching of sociology at Georgetown.”
How Identity Shapes Experience
The 2025-2026 CASBS fellows class, which arrived at Stanford last month, comprises 33 scholars and practitioners who represent 18 U.S. institutions and 12 international institutions and programs. Fellows will conduct research in various fields such as anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology and sociology.
Fields has worked at Georgetown since 2017 and joins a list of College faculty members who have been CASBS fellows, including Tyson, the chair of the Department of Sociology, Cynthia Gordon, a professor in the Department of Linguistics, Deborah Tannen, a distinguished university professor in the Department of Linguistics and Janet Mann, a distinguished university professor in the biology and psychology departments.
Corey D. Fields is an associate professor and Idol Family Term Chair in the Department of Sociology. (Photo courtesy of CASBS)
“I’m pretty stoked about it,” Fields said of the fellowship. “At a personal level, it’s an affirmation of the work I’ve done and the stuff I’m looking to do in the future. …To be invited to this interdisciplinary fellowship environment is really cool, because it’s sort of saying, ‘We think the work you’re doing speaks not just to sociologists but to social scientists and humanities folks across the board.’”
Fields, who has a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University, thinks of himself as a cultural sociologist with a focus on identity. “I’m interested in how identity at both the individual and collective level shapes the experience of social life, primarily in the U.S.,” he said.
In the summer of 2020, Fields joined the American Voices Project, a joint initiative of Stanford University and Princeton University to gather public opinion data, as one of the principal investigators.
Fields intends to combine information from the interviews with public statements from Fortune 500 companies, U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 universities and Forbes’ top 100 nonprofits to explore how Americans experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and engaged with issues of racial inequality. Fields worked with two recent Georgetown graduates, Joshua Gavsie (C’24) and Maxlyn Wallerson (C’25), to collect and analyze the organizational statements.
“I do think this project will provide some interesting insight into contemporary politics,” Fields said.
A Collective Success
Coming from Georgetown, with its emphasis on the humanities, and being at CASBS has given Fields time to take an interpretive approach to his work and understand how it connects to other disciplines, he said.
The ability to conduct a study or understand a statistical analysis needs to be complemented by being able to understand history and what’s happening.
Corey D. Fields
It’s another reminder, Fields said, that the humanities are as important as ever.
“The ability to be able to engage with art, literature and history is central to our capacity to be able to engage with each other and understand what’s going on,” he said. “What’s happened in the past helps you understand what’s happening today. So for me, it feels like the humanities are a central component to producing good citizens. And one of the great things about being at a place like Georgetown is it’s a place that’s thinking about the humanities in ways that connect it to other disciplines.”
For Fields, the CASBS fellowship is not just a personal success but a collective win for the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts & Sciences.
“It’s confirmation that the folks in the department are doing important work and producing important research that’s sharpening the field of sociology,” he said. “It speaks to the growth and development of the Georgetown sociology department.”