Two postdoctoral researchers in Cornell's Center for the Study of Economy and Society (CSES) will study the causes and consequences of the current economic crisis as part of a new cross-disciplinary, multi-university postdoctoral training program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), in economic sociology, beginning next year.

The NSF has made the award to six leading centers in economic sociology: the University of California-Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford Universities and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Together, the centers will study the causes and consequences of the current economic crisis by appointing and mentoring 12 postdoctoral research fellows (two at each institution).

Victor Nee, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology and director of CSES, and Kim Weeden, associate professor and chair of sociology, are the principal investigators at Cornell. The program will also involve faculty mentors from the Department of Sociology, the Center for the Study of Inequality and the ILR School.

The United States and world economy are currently experiencing the most extensive and intense downturn since the Great Depression, says Nee, and as a result, it is an urgent topic for sociological analysis.