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About Me

This page provides an overview of my work and personal background.

Email: joseph.cohen@qc.cuny.edu

My Job

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College in the City University of New York.  As a public sector university professor, it is my job to develop innovative informational and educational products that advance the public interest.  I specialize in creating informational and educational materials related to applied quantitative analysis, media, marketing, organizational analysis, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of economic markets.  

My Employer

The City University of New York (CUNY) is New York City’s public university system.  It is an intergovernmental agency operated by both the City and State of New York.  It is CUNY’s goal to deliver to New Yorkers the same kind of high-quality, low-cost university education that is available to working- and middle-class people in other highly-developed countries.  My college, Queens College, is the senior CUNY college that serves Queens and Nassau counties, a population of about 4.5 million people.

Background

Prior to joining Queens College, I worked as a Lecturer in Marketing at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.  I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University, where I studied under Miguel Centeno (chair), Paul DiMaggioBruce Western, and Scott Lynch.  My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor’s of International Business at Carleton University (Canada), where I was part of that program’s inaugural cohort.  I also studied at the University of Buenos Aires’ Economics Faculty.  Before entering the academy, I served as an intern in the Leader’s Office of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada,  a researcher at an Ottawa-area marketing consultancy, an English teacher in Japan, a waiter in the Tea Room at the Brighton Metropole Hotel, and an evening radio announcer in Northern Ontario

I am originally from Canada.  I love history, statistics, baseball, movies, adventure and simulation games, and exploring cities on foot.  My favorite baseball teams are the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets. My all-time favorite movie is 12 Monkeys.  My all-time favorite book is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  My all-time favorite meal is a smoked meat sandwich, French fries, and a Diet Coke at Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal. 

Current Projects

Currently, I work on these projects:

Content Creation Entrepreneurship.  The Queens Podcast Lab is a research and teaching project that studies and operates podcasting and other digital content creation enterprises.

Data Analytics & Applied Social Research Program.  Our program gives working- and middle-class New Yorkers access to affordable, graduate-level training in data analysis and social science research methodology.  Our program places students in leading tech, marketing, healthcare, and finance firms, as well as leading Ph.D. programs. 

The Annex Sociology Podcast. The Annex Sociology Podcast is an academic sociology-focused podcast show that features discussions about research and disciplinary issues of interest to professional sociologists.   

Past Projects

Household Finance.  Prior to my current project on media, my research mainly focused on household finance.  In 2017, I published Household Financial Crisis: The Basic Expenditures that Bankrupt the Middle Class (Praeger).  

Neoliberalism.  My earlier research focused on the character, history, and consequences of neoliberal policy reform.  In 2010, I co-published Global Capitalism: A Sociological Perspective (Polity).