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2008-09 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award

Award for Affirmative Action and Diversity Initiatives

Labor and Employment Relations Association (formerly, the
Industrial Relations Research Association), 2000, for outstanding teaching in the academic area
of sociology (inaugural year of this award)

Excellence in Education Award

College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 1993

Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award

Sociological Research Association : Member

WNPT (formerly WDCN) Public Television Corporation : Chair, Community Advisory Board

American Sociological Association : Member

Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología del Trabajo : Member

Southern Sociological Society : Member

Labor and Employment Relations Association : Member

Society for the Study of Social Problems : Member

Occupational Activism and Racial Desegregation at Work: Activist Careers after the Nonviolent Nashville Civil Rights Movement

Randy Hodson, Agent of a New Sociology of Work: Remembrance, Reflection, and Celebration

Preparation Pathways and Movement Participation: Insurgent Schooling and Nonviolent Direct Action in the Nashville Civil Rights Movement

“Movement Schools” and Dialogical Diffusion of Nonviolent Praxis: Nashville Workshops in the Southern Civil Rights Movement

American labor unions resemble private representative democracies, complete with formally constituted conventions and officer election procedures. Like other democratic institutions, unions have repeatedly experienced highly charged conflicts over the integration of ethnic minorities and women into leadership positions. In Becoming a Mighty Voice, Daniel B. Cornfield traces the fifty-five-year history of the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA), describing the emergence of new social grou


Becoming a Mighty Voice Conflict and Change in the United Furniture Workers of America

The advent of transnational economic production and market integration compels sociologists of work to look beyond traditional national boundaries and build an international sociology of work in order to effectively address the human, scientific, and practical challenges posed by global economic transnationalism. The purpose of this volume is to promote transnational dialogue about the sociology of work and help build a truly international discipline in this field.



Worlds of Work Building an International Sociology of Work

At a time when the bulwarks of the music industry are collapsing, what does it mean to be a successful musician and artist? How might contemporary musicians sustain their artistic communities? Based on interviews with over seventy-five popular-music professionals in Nashville, Beyond the Beat looks at artist activists—those visionaries who create inclusive artist communities in today's individualistic and entrepreneurial art world. Using Nashville as a model, Daniel Cornfield develops a theory o

Beyond the Beat Musicians Building Community in Nashville

Dan Cornfield is Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, Editor-in-Chief of Work and Occupations, and a Fellow of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. His work on artist careers, labor, civil rights, and immigration addresses the formation of inclusive and expressive occupational communities and their impact on cultural pluralism.  During his Fellowship year at the Curb Center, Cornfield and a team of sociology graduate students will examine the role of local arts agencies in promoting cultural equity and community engagement in the arts in the U.S.

His Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville (Princeton University Press)  addresses how indie musicians strengthen their inclusive and diversifying peer community of artists in the contemporary era of the gig economy and heightened identity politics, based on his in-depth interviews with 75 Nashville popular-music musicians.   Dan’s work has been widely published in social science journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, and the ILR Review.  Among his books are Becoming a Mighty Voice (Russell Sage Foundation) and Worlds of Work (Springer), co-edited with Randy Hodson.   He has chaired the Metropolitan Nashville Human Relations Commission, advised WNPT (Nashville public television) in the production of its Emmy Award-winning documentary series on Nashville immigrants “Next Door Neighbors,” and presently advises the Future of Music Coalition on its artist revenue streams project and the National Endowment of the Arts on its research lab initiative, “The Arts, Creativity, Cognition and Learning.”

Cornfield earned his BA (1974), MA (1977), and PhD (1980) all in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Labor & Employment

Creative Class

Unionization

Labor Unions

Musicians

Vanderbilt University Profile

Vanderbilt University News Profile

Curb Center Profile

SAGE Profile

‘Victories would be nothing less than an earthquake’: can UAW win in the south?

Wynn Resorts reaches deal with Las Vegas unions, avoiding strike

Former Yellow drivers have trouble finding jobs in right-to-work Tennessee

Can I Watch ‘Barbenheimer’ Despite the Hollywood Strikes?

US union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns

Gen Z battles to bring back unions, one Starbucks at a time

Why the Teamsters union drive at Amazon could succeed where Bessemer faltered

Tensions and tempers rise on the picket lines as General Motors strike enters day three

GM strike update

Tennessee Workers Reject Union At Volkswagen Plant — Again

Professor of Sociology

A record number of Americans have quit their jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Known as the Great Resignation, the U.S. Labor Department in January reported the number of workers quitting jobs in November of last year was 4.5 million, a new record. Dan Cornfield is Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, Editor-in-Chief of Work and Occupations, and a Fellow of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Cornfield and recently participated in a mini-conference titled “Precarious Employment and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” He offers perspective on what’s driving the Great Resignation and what’s next for labor trends in this stage of the pandemic.

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