
Daniel McFarland
Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of Sociology and of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business
Graduate School of Education
Web page: http://web.stanford.edu/people/dan.mcfarland
Bio
I study the social and organizational dynamics of educational systems like schools, classrooms and universities. In particular, I have performed a series of studies on classroom organization and interaction; on the formation of adolescent relationships, social structures, and identities; on interdisciplinary collaboration and intellectual innovation; and on relational sociology. I have broad research interests and have been drawn into a variety of interdisciplinary collaborations with linguists and computer scientists. This in turn has led to studies of big data and methodological advances in social networks and language modeling.
Academic Appointments
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Professor, Graduate School of Education
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Professor (By courtesy), Sociology
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Professor (By courtesy), Organizational Behavior
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Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
Administrative Appointments
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Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Education (2000 - Present)
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Director, Stanford Center for Computational Social Science (2012 - 2016)
Honors & Awards
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Gould Award, American Journal of Sociology (2013-14)
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Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2014-17)
Program Affiliations
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Science, Technology and Society
Professional Education
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PhD/MA, University of Chicago, Sociology, Sociology
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BA, University of Chicago, Philosophy
Research Interests
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Data Sciences
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Higher Education
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History of Education
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Leadership and Organization
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Sociology
Current Research and Scholarly Interests
I am currently engaged in several projects.
1. I am writing a textbook on Social Network Analysis in R with James Moody and Jeff Smith.
2. I am writing up a series of papers on how micro-events in interaction relate to social networks with Jan Fuhse.
3. However, the majority of my current research projects concern the sociology of science and research innovation.
2020-21 Courses
- Computational Sociology
EDUC 317, SOC 317W (Aut, Win, Spr) - Social Network Methods
EDUC 316, SOC 369 (Spr) - Sociology of Science
EDUC 120, EDUC 320, SOC 330, STS 200Q (Win) -
Independent Studies (19)
- Curricular Practical Training
SOC 392 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Directed Reading
EDUC 480 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Directed Reading in Education
EDUC 180 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Directed Reading in Environment and Resources
ENVRES 398 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Directed Research
EDUC 490 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Directed Research in Education
EDUC 190 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Directed Research in Environment and Resources
ENVRES 399 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Graduate Directed Research
SOC 391 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Graduate Individual Study
SOC 390 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Honors Research
EDUC 140 (Aut) - Master's Thesis
EDUC 185 (Aut, Win) - Practicum
EDUC 470 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Research Internship
SOC 395 (Aut, Win) - Senior Honors Thesis
URBANST 199 (Win) - Senior Thesis
SOC 196 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Supervised Internship
EDUC 380 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Undergraduate Directed Research
SOC 191 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Undergraduate Individual Study
SOC 190 (Aut, Spr) - Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship
SOC 192 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Curricular Practical Training
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Prior Year Courses
2019-20 Courses
- Introduction to Data Science
EDUC 143, EDUC 423, SOC 302 (Win) - Social Network Methods
EDUC 316, SOC 369 (Spr)
2018-19 Courses
- Introduction to Data Science
EDUC 423, SOC 302 (Win) - Play and Games
EDUC 414, SOC 301 (Aut) - Social Network Methods
EDUC 316, SOC 369 (Win) - Sociology of Science
EDUC 120, EDUC 320, SOC 330, STS 200Q (Aut)
2017-18 Courses
- Relational Sociology
EDUC 312, SOC 224B (Win) - Social Network Methods
EDUC 316, SOC 369 (Win)
- Introduction to Data Science
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Ellie Beam, ELISA KIM, Cindy Lam, Daniel Scott Smith, Sheridan Stewart -
Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor
Lanu Kim -
Doctoral (Program)
Hancheng Cao, Emma Kerr, Taylor LiCausi, Kemi Oyewole
All Publications
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The Meeting of Minds: Forging Social and Intellectual Networks within Universities
SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
2020; 7: 433–64
View details for DOI 10.15195/v7.a18
View details for Web of Science ID 000569767000001
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The Diversity-Innovation Paradox in Science.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2020
Abstract
Prior work finds a diversity paradox: Diversity breeds innovation, yet underrepresented groups that diversify organizations have less successful careers within them. Does the diversity paradox hold for scientists as well? We study this by utilizing a near-complete population of 1.2 million US doctoral recipients from 1977 to 2015 and following their careers into publishing and faculty positions. We use text analysis and machine learning to answer a series of questions: How do we detect scientific innovations? Are underrepresented groups more likely to generate scientific innovations? And are the innovations of underrepresented groups adopted and rewarded? Our analyses show that underrepresented groups produce higher rates of scientific novelty. However, their novel contributions are devalued and discounted: For example, novel contributions by gender and racial minorities are taken up by other scholars at lower rates than novel contributions by gender and racial majorities, and equally impactful contributions of gender and racial minorities are less likely to result in successful scientific careers than for majority groups. These results suggest there may be unwarranted reproduction of stratification in academic careers that discounts diversity's role in innovation and partly explains the underrepresentation of some groups in academia.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1915378117
View details for PubMedID 32291335
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The Patterning of Collaborative Behavior and Knowledge Culminations in Interdisciplinary Research Centers
MINERVA
2020; 58 (1)
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11024-019-09381-6
View details for Web of Science ID 000517064000004
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Paradigm Wars Revisited: A Cartography of Graduate Research in the Field of Education (1980-2010)
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
2019
View details for DOI 10.3102/0002831219860511
View details for Web of Science ID 000475014900001
- The Patterning of Collaborative Behavior and Knowledge Culminations in Interdisciplinary Research Centers Minerva 2019: 1-25
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Superstars in the making? The broad effects of interdisciplinary centers
RESEARCH POLICY
2018; 47 (3): 543–57
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.respol.2018.01.014
View details for Web of Science ID 000427664000001
- Measuring the evolution of a scientific field through citation frames Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2018; 6: 391-406
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Modeling Affinity based Popularity Dynamics
ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2017: 477–86
View details for DOI 10.1145/3132847.3132923
View details for Web of Science ID 000440845300048
- Descriptive Analysis in Education: A Guide for Researchers. NCEE 2017-4023. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance 2017
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Ethnic Composition and Friendship Segregation: Differential Effects for Adolescent Natives and Immigrants
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2016; 121 (4): 1223-1272
Abstract
Ethnically diverse settings provide opportunities for interethnic friendship but can also increase the preference for same-ethnic friendship. Therefore, same-ethnic friendship preferences, or ethnic homophily, can work at cross-purposes with policy recommendations to diversify ethnic representation in social settings. In order to effectively overcome ethnic segregation, we need to identify those factors within diverse settings that exacerbate the tendency toward ethnic homophily. Using unique data and multiple network analyses, the authors examine 529 adolescent friendship networks in English, German, Dutch, and Swedish schools and find that the ethnic composition of school classes relates differently to immigrant and native homophily. Immigrant homophily disproportionately increases as immigrants see more same-ethnic peers, and friendship density among natives has no effect on this. By contrast, native homophily remains relatively low until natives see dense groups of immigrants. The authors' results suggest that theories of interethnic competition and contact opportunities apply differently to ethnic majority and minority groups.
View details for Web of Science ID 000369717400006
- Sociology in the era of big data: The ascent of forensic social science The American Sociologist 2016; 47 (1): 12-35
- Community (in) colleges: The relationship between online network involvement and academic outcomes at a community college Community College Review 2016; 44 (3): 232-254
- Measuring paradigmaticness of disciplines using text Sociological Science 2016; 3: 757-778
- Citation classification for behavioral analysis of a scientific field arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.00435 2016
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Streams of Thought: Knowledge Flows and Intellectual Cohesion in a Multidisciplinary Era
SOCIAL FORCES
2015; 93 (4): 1687-1722
View details for DOI 10.1093/sf/sov004
View details for Web of Science ID 000355663700044
- The Organization of Schools and Classrooms Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource 2015: 1-15
- Big data and the danger of being precisely inaccurate Big Data & Society 2015; 2 (2): 2053951715602495
- Social Informatics: SocInfo 2014 International Workshops, Barcelona, Spain, November 11, 2014, Revised Selected Papers Springer. 2015
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Network Ecology and Adolescent Social Structure
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
2014; 79 (6): 1088-1121
Abstract
Adolescent societies-whether arising from weak, short-term classroom friendships or from close, long-term friendships-exhibit various levels of network clustering, segregation, and hierarchy. Some are rank-ordered caste systems and others are flat, cliquish worlds. Explaining the source of such structural variation remains a challenge, however, because global network features are generally treated as the agglomeration of micro-level tie-formation mechanisms, namely balance, homophily, and dominance. How do the same micro-mechanisms generate significant variation in global network structures? To answer this question we propose and test a network ecological theory that specifies the ways features of organizational environments moderate the expression of tie-formation processes, thereby generating variability in global network structures across settings. We develop this argument using longitudinal friendship data on schools (Add Health study) and classrooms (Classroom Engagement study), and by extending exponential random graph models to the study of multiple societies over time.
View details for DOI 10.1177/0003122414554001
View details for Web of Science ID 000345458400003
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4271807
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The Semiformal Organization
ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
2014; 25 (5): 1306-1324
View details for DOI 10.1287/orsc.2013.0882
View details for Web of Science ID 000342281700002
- Encouraging Forum Participation in Online Courses with Collectivist, Individualist, and Neutral Motivational Framings. eLearning Papers 2014; 37
- The Semi-Formal Organization Organization Science, Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0882 2014
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Hierarchical models for relational event sequences
JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PSYCHOLOGY
2013; 57 (6): 297-309
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jmp.2013.04.001
View details for Web of Science ID 000328712300004
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Differentiating language usage through topic models
POETICS
2013; 41 (6): 607-625
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.poetic.2013.06.004
View details for Web of Science ID 000329558200003
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Making the Connection: Social Bonding in Courtship Situations
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2013; 118 (6): 1596-1649
View details for DOI 10.1086/670240
View details for Web of Science ID 000321045300004
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Transdisciplinary translational science and the case of preterm birth
JOURNAL OF PERINATOLOGY
2013; 33 (4): 251-258
Abstract
Medical researchers have called for new forms of translational science that can solve complex medical problems. Mainstream science has made complementary calls for heterogeneous teams of collaborators who conduct transdisciplinary research so as to solve complex social problems. Is transdisciplinary translational science what the medical community needs? What challenges must the medical community overcome to successfully implement this new form of translational science? This article makes several contributions. First, it clarifies the concept of transdisciplinary research and distinguishes it from other forms of collaboration. Second, it presents an example of a complex medical problem and a concrete effort to solve it through transdisciplinary collaboration: for example, the problem of preterm birth and the March of Dimes effort to form a transdisciplinary research center that synthesizes knowledge on it. The presentation of this example grounds discussion on new medical research models and reveals potential means by which they can be judged and evaluated. Third, this article identifies the challenges to forming transdisciplines and the practices that overcome them. Departments, universities and disciplines tend to form intellectual silos and adopt reductionist approaches. Forming a more integrated (or 'constructionist'), problem-based science reflective of transdisciplinary research requires the adoption of novel practices to overcome these obstacles.
View details for DOI 10.1038/jp.2012.133
View details for PubMedID 23079774
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Ties That Last: Tie Formation and Persistence in Research Collaborations over Time
ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
2013; 58 (1): 69-110
View details for DOI 10.1177/0001839212474272
View details for Web of Science ID 000318801100004
- Social Networks Research in Higher Education. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research 2013; 28: 151-215
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Detecting friendly, flirtatious, awkward, and assertive speech in speed-dates
COMPUTER SPEECH AND LANGUAGE
2013; 27 (1): 89-115
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.csl.2012.01.005
View details for Web of Science ID 000311524800006
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Measurement error in network data: A re-classification
SOCIAL NETWORKS
2012; 34 (4): 396-409
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.socnet.2012.01.003
View details for Web of Science ID 000313304100004
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Classroom Ordering and the Situational Imperatives of Routine and Ritual
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
2012; 85 (4): 326-349
View details for DOI 10.1177/0038040712452093
View details for Web of Science ID 000309140200002
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Influence flows in the academy: Using affiliation networks to assess peer effects among researchers
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
2011; 40 (3): 1001-1017
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.10.002
View details for Web of Science ID 000289497100021
- The Ties that Influence: How Social Networks Channel Faculty Grant Productivity. Social Science Research 2011; 40: 1001-1017
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Network Search: A New Way of Seeing the Education Knowledge Domain
TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD
2010; 112 (10): 2664-2702
View details for Web of Science ID 000284327900008
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Toward a Historical Sociology of Social Situations
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2010; 115 (6): 1713-1752
View details for Web of Science ID 000278374600002
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Organization by Design: Supply- and Demand-side Models of Mathematics Course Taking
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
2009; 82 (4): 315-343
View details for Web of Science ID 000272224000002
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Inside Student Government: The Variable Quality of High School Student Councils
TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD
2009; 111 (1): 27-54
View details for Web of Science ID 000269711000002
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Curricular flows: Trajectories, turning points, and assignment criteria in high school math careers
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
2006; 79 (3): 177-205
View details for Web of Science ID 000240413400001
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Bowling young: How youth voluntary associations influence adult political participation
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
2006; 71 (3): 401-425
View details for Web of Science ID 000238812900003
- The Art and Science of Dynamic Network Visualization. Journal of Social Structure, Permalink: http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume7/deMollMcFarland/ 2006; 7 (2)
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Motives and contexts of identity change: A case for network effects
98th Annual Meeting of the American-Sociological-Association
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC. 2005: 289–315
View details for Web of Science ID 000236530500001
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Dynamic network visualization
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2005; 110 (4): 1206-1241
View details for Web of Science ID 000229472000011
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Resistance as a social drama: A study of change-oriented encounters
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2004; 109 (6): 1249-1318
View details for Web of Science ID 000221651700001
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When tensions mount: Conceptualizing classroom situations and the conditions of student-teacher conflict
Conference on Stability and Change in American Education
ELIOT WERNER PUBLIATIONS INC. 2003: 127–150
View details for Web of Science ID 000189466700008
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Student resistance: How the formal and informal organization of classrooms facilitate everyday forms of student defiance
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
2001; 107 (3): 612-678
View details for Web of Science ID 000175830600003