Dalton Conley is University Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair of Sociology at New York University. He also holds appointments at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, as an Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). In 2005, Conley became the first sociologist to win the NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award, given annually to the country's top young scientist, engineer or mathematician. His research focuses on the determinants of economic opportunity within and across generations. In this vein, he studies sibling differences in socioeconomic success; racial inequalities; the salience of physical appearance to economic status; the measurement of class; and how health and biology affect (and are affected by) social position.

Blog Entries by Dalton Conley

Disparate Lives: Why the Ricci Decision Won't Affect Racial (In)Equality

26 Comments | Posted July 7, 2009 | 03:43 PM (EST)


Now that the initial fall-out over last week's Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano has settled and the implications for Judge Sotomayor's confirmation hearings have been discussed and debated, we might take some time to consider the where this decision falls in the longer arc of affirmative action and...

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The BlackBerry First Family

Posted January 24, 2009 | 03:42 PM (EST)


Now it's official. Obama has made history. No, I'm not talking about the presidential re-swearing in, or becoming the first African-American President. I am talking about the fact that we now have the first-ever BlackBerry President. The president evidently won the first battle of his new administration after having declared,...

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Much Ado About Birth Order

Posted June 27, 2007 | 09:37 AM (EST)


Much hubbub has ensued from a Norwegian study published in the prestigious journal Science that purports to show that first borns enjoy a 2.3 point advantage in IQ. The study was noteworthy for its large sample size (more than 200,000 military conscripts) and for its innovative technique of examining individuals...

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Why My "Man’s Right to Choose" Abortion Argument is Made from a Feminist Perspective

Posted December 7, 2005 | 07:53 PM (EST)


I want to take the opportunity to elaborate the position from which I was arguing in the NY Times, while also backing off on a couple points.

One of the (main) modernist projects is about erasing the limitations of biology. If someone is wheelchair bound, we do not --...

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