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Townshend Hall

The Department of Sociology Address:

238 Townshend Hall
1885 Neil Avenue Mall
Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: (614) 292.6681
Fax: (614) 292.6687

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Regular Faculty

Cynthia Colen

Assistant Professor

Office: 217 Townshend
Phone: 614.247.8135
Email: colen.3@sociology.osu.edu

CV: View my Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Ph.D.: University of Michigan, 2005


Research Interests:

Social demography, health and mortality, stratification and mobility, race/ethnicity. Current research investigates linkages between racial and ethnic inequalities, status attainment processes, and health outcomes; rural/ urban patterning of morbidity and mortality; and the role of kinship networks as sources of resiliency among marginalized populations. Most recent work focuses on black/white disparities in mental health outcomes, such as suicide.


Recent Publications:

  • Colen, Cynthia G., Arline T. Geronimus, John Bound and Sherman A. James. Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight. American Journal of Public Health 96:2032-2039.
  • Colen, Cynthia G., Arline T. Geronimus and Maureen G. Phipps. Getting a Piece of the Pie? The Economic Boom of the 1990s and Declining Teen Birth Rates in the United States. Social Science and Medicine 63:1531-1545.
  • Geronimus, Arline T., Cynthia G. Colen, Tara Shochet, Lori Barer Ingber and Sherman A. James. Urban-Rural Differences in Excess Mortality among High-Poverty Populations: Evidence from the Harlem Household Survey and the Pitt County, North Carolina Study of African American Health. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 17:532-558.
  • Geronimus, Arline T., John Bound, Timothy A. Waidmann, Cynthia G. Colen and Dianne Steffick. Inequality in Life Expectancy, Functional Status, and Active Life Expectancy Across Selected Black and White Populations in the United States. Demography 38:227-251.