Benjamin Thomas Cornwell (born April 30, 1978) is an American sociologist. He is Professor of Sociology at Cornell University, where he served as chair from 2020 to 2024. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2007. He studied under Edward Laumann, Linda Waite, and Jason Beckfield. He works on issues surrounding sociological methods, the epidemic spread of infectious disease, health and aging, and collective behavior.
Early life and family
Benjamin Cornwell was born to Thomas and Susan (Smith) Cornwell in 1978 in Huntington, West Virginia. He is a distant relation of Oliver Cromwell, who led England as Lord Protector between the reigns of Kings Charles I and Charles II.Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, by Antonia Fraser, London 1973, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, , pp. 385–389.Aylmer, G.E., Rebellion or Revolution? England 1640–1660, Oxford and New York, 1990 Oxford University Paperback, p. 169.Durston, Christopher (1998). The Fall of Cromwell's Major-Generals in English Historical Review 1998 113 (450): pp. 18–37, Morrill, John (editor), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution, 1990, pp. 137–138, 190, and 211–213.Manganiello, Stephen, The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1639–1660, Scarecrow Press, 2004, 613 p., , p. 539. Through his maternal great-grandmother, Edna Alice (Hatfield) Smith, he is a cousin of Devil Anse Hatfield and Henry D. Hatfield."William Epson Smith." March 6, 2004. Putnam Post. Putnam, West Virginia. United States Obituary Collection. Through this family, he is a distant relative of JD Vance who, according to Vance's memoir, is related to the Hafields. His paternal 4th great-grandfather is Thomas Hannan, a revolutionary war soldier and the first Anglo settler of the Kanawha River region of Virginia (now West Virginia).National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 2020. Dallas, Texas: PCI. His father was a social worker at Middletown Regional Hospital, and his mother a medical secretary at Children's in Cincinnati. His cousin, Kathie Stewart, is a founding member of the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra (principal flutist). He and his wife, Erin York Cornwell, have one daughter, Marlowe.
Scholarly career
Cornwell earned his B.A. in sociology in 2000 at the University of Cincinnati, his M.A. at The Ohio State University in 2001, and his Ph.D. at Chicago. His dissertation was titled , which argues that individuals' structural positions within larger social networks is partly a function of health.Cornwell, Benjamin. The University of Chicago, 2007 After receiving his PhD, he spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Chicago Center for the Demography of Economics and Aging.https://news.uchicago.edu/story/older-americans-are-more-socially-engaged-you-may-think During his time at Chicago, he was a research assistant and researcher for the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, on which he eventually became a co-investigator. He has since served as consulting editor of , which was founded in 1895 and is the oldest journal of sociology in history.July 2013. “Masthead.” American Journal of Sociology 119(1). Retrieved March 15, 2025. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/676940
He served for several years as a teaching intern and research assistant for ex-Chicago dean Donald N. Levine while at Chicago, helping him in his argument for the need for a revamped and renewed undergraduate curriculum centering not on memorization of facts or testing, but on analytic understanding, the ancient art of rhetoric, and a focus on the mutual constitution of the mind's powers and its connection to the body.Levine, Donald N. 2008. . University of Chicago Press. He was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell in 2008, and was appointed as Chair of that Department in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cornwell is author or editor on three books and over 70 scientific articles. Many of his research articles have been on the study of the role social networks play in affecting people's - especially socially disadvantaged and physically or cognitively vulnerable individuals' - social networks, access to support an exchange opportunities, and "social capital," which are critical for well being.Cornwell, Benjamin. 2009. "Good Health and the Bridging of Structural Holes." 31(1):92-103.Cornwell, Benjamin, and Edward O. Laumann. 2015. "The Health Benefits of Network Growth: New Evidence from a National Survey of Older Adults." 125:94-106.Kotwal, Ashwin A., Juyeon Kim, Linda Waite, and William Dale. 2016. "Social Function and Cognitive Status: Results from a US Nationally Representative Survey of Older Adults." 31:854-862.Perry, Brea L., William R. McConnell, Siyun Peng, Adam R. Roth, Max Coleman, Mohit Manchella, Meghann Roessler, Heather Francis, Hope Sheean, and Liana A. Apostolova. 2022. "Social Networks and Cognitive Function: An Evaluation of Social Bridging and Bonding Mechanisms." 62(6):865-875. In general, because in part of their social capital benefits and because they embed people in exchange and support networks that provide resources and companionship, people who experience disruptions like network member mortality or infectious disease, attempt to remain connected, often using the community as a substitute when necessary.Kannan, Viji Diane, and Peter J. Veazie. 2023. "US Trends in Social Isolation, Social Engagement, and Companionship⎯ Nationally and by Age, Sex, Race/Ethnicity, Family Income, and Work Hours, 2003–2020." 21:101331.Wrzus, Cornelia, Martha Hänel, Jenny Wagner, and Franz J. Neyer. 2013. "Social Network Changes and Life Events across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis." 139(1):53. This is critical not only for individual- and population-level health, but also for control and independence in daily life.Cornwell, Benjamin. 2011. "Independence through Social Networks: Bridging Potential among Older Women and Men." 66(6):782-794.Nakagomi, Atsushi, Koichiro Shiba, Masamichi Hanazato, Katsunori Kondo, and Ichiro Kawachi. 2020. "Does Community-Level Social Capital Mitigate the Impact of Widowhood & Living Alone on Depressive Symptoms?: A Prospective, Multi-Level Study." 259:113140.Taylor, Harry Owen, Robert Joseph Taylor, Ann W. Nguyen, and Linda Chatters. 2018. "Social Isolation, Depression, and Psychological Distress among Older Adults." 30(2):229-246.Uchino, Bert N., and Karen S. Rook. 2020. "Emotions, Relationships, Health and Illness into Old Age." 139)42-48. He has shown that due to the sometimes rapid onset of health problems and losses, people prioritize and struggle to maintain a kind of homeostasis in their personal and community social networks, including maintaining and recovering a stable network.Bianchi, Federico, Matteo Piolatto, Alessandra Marengoni, and Flaminio Squazzoni. 2023. "Structure of Personal Networks and Cognitive Abilities: A Study on a Sample of Italian Older Adults." 74:71-77.Das, Aniruddha. 2021. "Is Loneliness Adaptive? A Dynamic Panel Model Study of Older US Adults." 76(7):1430-1440.Roth, Adam R. 2020. "Social Networks and Health in Later Life: A State of the Literature." 42(7):1642-1656.Schafer, Markus H., Haosen Sun, and Jin A. Lee. 2022. "Compensatory Connections? Living Alone, Loneliness, and the Buffering Role of Social Connection among Older American and European Adults." 77(8):1550-1560.Sun, Haosen, and Markus H. Schafer. 2023. "Isolation or Replenishment? The Case of Partner Network Exclusivity and Partner Loss in Later Life." 78(4):705-717.Townsend, Braedon G., Jessamine TH Chen, and Viviana M. Wuthrich. 2021. "Barriers and Facilitators to Social Participation in Older Adults: A Systematic Literature Review." 44(4):359-380. He has used national survey data extensively to uncover circumstances under which people have smaller social networks, less stable networks, and less social capital (e.g., due to repeated personal losses).Morgan, Tessa, Janine Wiles, Hong-Jae Park, Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Ofa Dewes, Stella Black, Lisa Williams, and Merryn Gott. 2021. "Social Connectedness: What Matters to Older People?." 41(5):1126-1144.Small, Mario Luis. Someone to Talk To. Oxford University Press, 2017.Wrzus, Cornelia, Martha Hänel, Jenny Wagner, and Franz J. Neyer. 2023. "Social Network Changes and Life Events across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis." 139(1):53. People are usually able to replace lost network ties with new ones, except when social disadvantage comes into play.Cornwell, Benjamin. 2015. "Social Disadvantage and Network Turnover." 70(1):132-142.Cornwell, Benjamin, and Tianyao Qu. 2024. "“I Love You to Death”: Social Networks and the Widowhood Effect on Mortality." 65(2):273-291.Huxhold, Oliver, and Georg Henning. 2023. "The Risks of Experiencing Severe Loneliness across Middle and Late Adulthood." 78(10):1668-1675.Townsend, Braedon G., Jessamine TH Chen, and Viviana M. Wuthrich. 2021. "Barriers and Facilitators to Social Participation in Older Adults: A Systematic Literature Review." 44(4):359-380.Uchino, Bert N., and Karen S. Rook. 2020. "Emotions, Relationships, Health and Illness into Old Age." 139)42-48.