Peter Bearman

• Co-Director, Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program

Research

Peter Bearman is the Director of the Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences, the Cole Professor of Social Science, and Co-Director of the Health & Society Scholars Program. He was the founding director of ISERP, serving from the Institute's launch in 2000 until 2008. A recipient of the NIH Director's Pioneer Award in 2007, Bearman is currently investigating the social determinants of the autism epidemic.

A specialist in network analysis, he co-designed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and has used the data extensively for research on topics including adolescent sexual networks, networks of disease transmission, and genetic influences on same-sex preference. He has also conducted research in historical sociology, including Relations into Rhetorics: Local Elite Social Structure in Norfolk, England, 1540-1640 (Rutgers, 1993). He is the author of Doormen (University of Chicago Press, 2005).

Selected Work

Books

• Handbook of Analytical Sociology. 2009. Hedstrom, Peter and Peter Bearman (eds). Oxford University Press.
• Doormen: Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries. 2005. University of Chicago Press.
• Relations into Rhetorics: Local Elite Social Structure in Norfolk, England: 1540-1640. 1993. Rutgers University Press. ASA Rose Monograph Series.

Articles

• 2009    King, Marissa, Diana Dakhlallah, Christine Fountain, and Peter S. Bearman. “Parental Age and the Increased Prevalence of Autism”. American Journal of Public Health. (forthcoming)
• 2009    King, Marissa and Peter Bearman. “Diagnostic Change and Increased Prevalence of Autism”. International Journal of Epidemiology. (forthcoming)
• 2008    Parigi, Paolo and Peter S. Bearman. “Spaghetti Politics: The Structure of the Italian Political System, 1986-2002”. Social Forces.  87 (2): 623-649

• 2008    Bearman, Peter S. “The Long Twentieth Century in American Sociology or Back to The Future”. Sociological Forum. 23 (2): 390-396

• 2007    Baldassarri, Delia and Peter S. Bearman. “Dynamics of Political Polarization”. American Sociological Review. V72, N5: 784-812.

• 2007    Weiss, Christopher and Peter S. Bearman. “Fresh Starts: School Form and Student Outcomes”. American Journal of Education. 113: 395-421.

• 2006    Erickson, Emily and Peter S. Bearman. “Malfeasance and the Foundations for Global Trade: The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833.” American Journal of Sociology. 112:195-230.

• 2005    Brückner, Hannah and Peter S. Bearman.  “After the Promise: The STD Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges”. Journal of Adolescent Health. 36:271-278

• 2004    Bearman, Peter S. and Paolo Parigi.  “Cloning Headless Frogs and Other Important Matters: Conversation Topics and Network Structure”. Social Forces. 83 (2): 535-557

• 2004    Brückner, Hannah, Anne Martin and Peter S. Bearman.   “Ambivalence and Pregnancy: Adolescent Attitudes, Contraception, and Pregnancy”.  Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 36 (6): 248-257

• 2004    Bearman, Peter S., James Moody and Katherine Stovel. “Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks”. American Journal of Sociology.  Vol. 110: 44-91

• 2004    Bearman, Peter S., and James Moody. “Suicide and Friendships among American Adolescents”.  American Journal of Public Health. Vol 94, N1: 89-96.

• 2002    Bearman, Peter S., James Moody and Robert Faris. “Networks and History”. Complexity. Vol.7, No.6. 59-74.

• 2002    Bearman, Peter S., and Hannah Brückner. “Opposite-Sex Twins and Same-Sex Attraction”. American Journal of Sociology. Vol 107: No 5: 1179-1205.

• 2001    Savage, Michael, Katherine Stovel, and Peter Bearman.  “Class Formation and Localism in an Emerging Bureaucracy:  British Bank Workers, 1880-1960.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 25 (2): 284-306.

• 2001    Bearman, Peter S., and Hannah  Brückner. “Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and the Transition to First Intercourse.” American Journal of Sociology.  Vol. 106, N4 859-912.

• 2000    Bearman, Peter S., and Katherine Stovel. “Becoming a Nazi: Models for Narrative Networks.”  Poetics. 27:69-90

Selected Invited Presentations

• "Understanding the Increased Prevalence of Autism". 2008-2009. Vancouver, Rutgers, Harvard, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Office of Behavioral and Social Science National Institutes of Health (NIH), Stanford, Stony Brook, Columbia, Michigan, Harvard
  

• "The Dynamics of Violence". 2008. Bologna, Oxford, Stanford, Yale, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Harvard (MERISH)
  

• "Doormen". 2007. ASA (author meets critic), Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), Columbia,
  

• "Spaghetti Politics". 2006. Chicago Business School, New York University (NYU), Juan March Institute, Spain
  

• "Malfeasance and Markets". 2006. Stanford Business School, Juan March Institute, Spain

See Also

• Research grants undertaken by Peter Bearman
• Seed grant: Sexual Networks of Non-Gay Identified Men Who Have Sex with Men
• Featured publication: Doormen
• Working papers by Peter Bearman

• Peter Bearman's CV
• Letters from the Director
• Press Release: Peter Bearman Receives NIH Director's Pioneer Award to Study Autism Epidemic
• Press Release: After the Promise
• Announcement: ISERP in the News - Virginity Pledges