FAS faculty are exploring the past, present, and future of democracy, and working to understand how it might change to keep pace with—and evolve alongside—our increasingly complex world.

Rourke O’Brien, Associate Professor of Sociology, showed that expanding voting rights in 1975 improved material conditions for everyone and immediately reduced mortality for non-white groups. The findings were published in a recent co-authored working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

Emma Zang, Associate Professor of Sociology, discussed her research on siblings, particularly how academically successful older siblings can positively affect their younger siblings’ academic performance.

Daniel Karell, Assistant Professor of Sociology and faculty fellow at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, wondered how the increasing reliance on tools like AI Overview, along with chatbots like Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, might affect people’s understanding of historical events.

A Yale study led by Daniel Karel, Assistant Professor of Sociology, finds that AI chatbots can subtly influence users’ social and political opinions through unintended latent biases.

A new study co-authored by Emma Zang, Associate Professor of Sociology, shows that across racial groups and the sexes, older Americans have sharply different patterns of marriage and living circumstances later in life.

In Q&A, Yale’s j. Siguru Wahutu, Assistant Professor of Sociology, discusses his research into media coverage of conflict and atrocities in Africa, his latest book project on tech companies, and the therapeutic value of household chores.

An obituary for sociologist Kai T. Erikson, who taught at Yale from 1966 to 2000, was published in the New York Times.

Kai T. Erikson, a beloved teacher and prominent figure on Yale’s campus for 45 years, died on Nov. 10.

The American Society of Criminology recognized Anderson for his pioneering ethnographic research on urban crime.