Craig M. Rawlings is interested in how meanings, ideas, beliefs, and feelings take shape and spread in groups. In modeling such processes, his research combines techniques from social network analysis with theories from social psychology, especially theories of interaction. He has applied these ideas in a variety of contexts, including communes, academic departments, and book clubs. His 2015 article with Dan McFarland and Dan Jurafsky on the gendered interactional performances in speed-dates won the Gould Prize for the best paper published in the American Journal of Sociology in the previous two-year period. He is currently interested in how interaction and group dynamics shape perceptions, sensations, and the meanings of aesthetic objects and our own bodies.
Craig is also passionate about teaching. Prior to coming to Duke, he held teaching positions at UC-Santa Barbara, where he was nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Award, and Northwestern, where he was repeatedly elected by students to the Faculty Honor Roll and among all the faculty was voted by the class of 2018 to give “The Last Lecture” to a room of 700 rowdy seniors. He looks forward to developing his graduate and undergraduate teaching with the talented and motivated students at Duke.
Craig is absolutely thrilled to be joining the sociology faculty at Duke. He is also looking forward to exploring the hiking, surfing, yoga, and food in the region.
Department of Sociology