Daniel A. McFarland

Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy)
Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education
Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences
Academic Area:
Organizational Behavior

Bio

Daniel A. McFarland received his AB in Philosophy (1993) and his PhD in Sociology (1999) at the University of Chicago. He is currently an Associate Professor of Education and affiliated professor of Organizational Behavior and Sociology at Stanford University.

Professor McFarland teaches courses in social network analysis, sociology of knowledge creation, microsociology, organizational behavior, and sociology of education. He has published a wide assortment of articles on social network dynamics, classroom resistance, political socialization, career mobility and dynamics, and microsocial theory. He is best known for his work on the formal and informal organization of classrooms (American Journal of Sociology 2001), dynamic network visualization (American Journal of Sociology 2005), and youth political socialization (American Sociological Review 2006). He is currently leading a large collaborative project funded by the NSF and Stanford’s Office of the President to study the relation between interdisciplinarity and scientific innovation.

Daniel McFarland won the 2006 Advisor of the Year award from the School of Education. He has been a consulting editor at the American Journal of Sociology and the Sociology of Education.

Research Statement

Daniel McFarland’s research focuses on the dynamic and interpretive qualities of social relationships and their effects on important organizational outcomes. McFarland is currently conducting three strands of research. The first concerns academia and how the arrangement of faculty social networks and the arrangement of scholarly ideas influence one another. The second concerns adolescent worlds and how membership affiliations, friendships, and interaction patterns greatly affect the quality of classroom experiences and learning outcomes. A third strand of work samples conversations in interpersonal notes and recordings of speed dating events to identify written and voiced means by which actors intentionally shape their relationships.
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Journal Articles

How New Ideas Diffuse in Science
Mengjie Cheng, Daniel Scott Smith, Xiang Ren, Hancheng Cao, Sanne Smith, Daniel A. McFarland
American Sociological Review
 2023 Vol. 88 Issue 3 Pages 521–561
Gendered Knowledge in Fields and Academic Careers
Lanu Kim, Daniel Scott Smith, Bas Hofstra, Daniel A. McFarland
Research Policy
 January 2022 Vol. 51 Issue 1
Facets of Specialization and Its Relation to Career Success: An Analysis of U.S. Sociology, 1980 to 2015
Raphael H. Heiberger, Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez, Daniel A. McFarland December 2021 Vol. 86 Issue 6 Pages 1164–1192