Jason L. Cummings is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University-Bloomington. He received a BA in Sociology and English from Fairfield University (CT) in 2002. The recipient of two prestigious pre-doctoral fellowships: (1) The ASA/NIMH minority fellowship and (2) The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Dissertation Award (NCMHD), Jason’s research traverses the areas of medical sociology, mental health, race & ethnicity, gender and stratification. More specifically, his scholarly interests center on the origin, causes and dynamics of racial and gender disparities in health and well-being.

He pursues these interests through the lens of three broad areas: (1) Racial and gender differentials in health over time; (2) Race/ethnicity, gender, mental health and social stress; and (3) Health problems of the black middle class. These lines of research are reflected in his publications, “Race, Gender and SES Disparities in Self-Assessed Health 1974-2004” (Research on Aging 2008) and “Health Disparities and the Black Middle Class Paradox: Overview, Empirical Investigation, and Discussion” (The Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness and Healing: Blueprint for the 21st Century Forthcoming), as well as his dissertation and future research plans.

In his dissertation, Jason uses General Social Survey (GSS) data to examine changes in gender and racial disparities in health and well-being from 1972-2008. These years cover an important period in U.S. history during which the social status of women and minorities improved dramatically relative to that of white men. He evaluates the implications of these changes for health disparities by: (1) establishing the patterns of racial and gender disparities in health and well-being from 1972-2008 and (2) evaluating the unique contributions of stability and change in four major domains of social life (socioeconomic attainment of women and minorities, marital patterns/family structures, labor market patterns and the persistence of neighborhood disadvantage) to these patterns. The general theoretical orientation that Jason brings to his work on health patterns over time seeks to make sense of racial and gender disparities in health through the context of stratification, inequality and social change. Previous research often presents a static view of health disparities by examining group differences in population health at one point in time. Moreover, many studies also restrict themselves to examining the implications of one component of stratification on health. Providing a much more nuanced approach to health-oriented research, his dissertation pays greater attention to the dynamic and multidimensional nature of socioeconomic and gender and racial stratification and highlights the degree to which these systems change over time and produce disparities in health and well-being across racial and gender groups.

From the east coast, Jason loves traffic, road rage, and New York City culture. When he’s not working on his dissertation, he loves to go to the movies and spend time with his loving wife.