Thomas Elliott

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Education

University of California, Irvine - May 2015
  • Ph.D. Sociology
  • Dissertation: "The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of Discourse About Homosexuality"
  • Chair: Edwin Amenta
    • University of California, Irvine - Fall 2009
  • M.A. Sociology
  • Thesis: "The Queer Movement and the Media: New York Times Coverage of LGBT and AIDS Organizations 1969-2007"
    • University of Texas at Dallas - May 2006
  • B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies - Physics & Chemistry Education
  • Honors Thesis: Providing a Safe Space: Creating a safer school climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth."

    • Interests

    Research Interests: Social Movements, Sexualities, Culture, Computational Social Science, Quantitative Methodologies, Social Network Analysis
    Programming Languages: R, Python, Stata, Javascript, PHP, MySQL
    Teaching Interests: Statistics, Quantitative Methodologies, Social Movements, Political Sociology, Social Problems, Sociology of Sexualities, Sociology of Gender, Computational Social Science

    Professional Experience

    Data Scientist, GitHub
  • 2017-Present
    • Fellow, Insight Data Science
  • 2017-2017
    • Lecturer, California State University, Channel Islands
  • Courses taught: Social Movements, Statistical Applications in Social Science, Political Sociology 2016-2017
    • Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Arizona
  • Youth Activism Project 2015-2016
  • Supervisor: Jennifer Earl
    • Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
  • Statistics Consultant 2014-2015
    • Research Assistant, University of California, Irvine
  • Dr. Edwin Amenta, Advisor 2010-2015
  • Dr. Francesca Polletta 2014-2015
  • Dr. Nina Bandelj 2014-2015
    • Instructor, University of California, Irvine
  • Courses taught: Statistics Researcher, Sociology of Sexualities 2010-2014
    • Teaching Assistant, University of California, Irvine
  • 2007-2014

    • Publications

    Amenta, Edwin, and Thomas Alan Elliott. Forthcoming. "What Drives Progressive Policy? Institutional Politics, Political Mediation, Policy Feedbacks and Early U.S. Old-Age Policy." Sociological Forum.
    Amenta, Edwin, Thomas Alan Elliott, Nicole Shortt, Amber Celina Tierney, Didem Turkoglu, Burrel Vann Jr. Forthcoming. "Institutional Mediation, Why Movement Organizations Receive Substantive Coverage, and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement." Mobilization.
    Amenta, Edwin, and Thomas Alan Elliott. Forthcoming. "All the Right Movements? Mediation, Rightist Movements, and Why U.S. Movements Received Extensive Newspaper Coverage." Social Forces.
    Elliott, Thomas, and Jennifer Earl. 2018. "Kids These Days: Supply and Demand for Youth Online Political Engagement." Digital Media and the Future(s) of Democracy. Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism Series. University of Pennsylvania Press.
    Elliott, Thomas and Jennifer Earl. 2018. "Organizing the Next Generation: Youth Engagement with Activism Inside and Outside of Organizations." Social Media + Society.
    Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Alan Elliott. 2017. "Youth, Activism, and Social Movements." Sociology Compass 11:e12465.
    Amenta, Edwin, Thomas Alan Elliott, Nicole Shortt, Amber Celina Tierney, Didem Turkoglu, and Burrel Vann Jr. 2017. "From Bias to Coverage: What explains how news organizations treat social movements." Sociology Compass.
    Elliott, Thomas Alan, Jennifer Earl, and Thomas V. Maher. 2017. "Recruiting Inclusiveness: Intersectionality, Social Movements, and Youth Online." Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change.
    Elliott, Thomas Alan, and Jennifer Earl. 2016. "Online Protest Participation and the Digital Divide: Modeling the Effect of the Digital Divide on Online Petition Signing." New Media and Society. [Link]
    Elliott, Thomas Alan, Edwin Amenta, and Neal Caren. 2016. "Recipes for Attention: Policy Reforms, Crises, Organizational Characteristics and Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969-2010." Sociological Forum 31:926-947. [online supplement] [Link]
    Edwin Amenta, Thomas Alan Elliott, and Amber Celina Tierney. 2016. "Political Reform and the Newspaper Coverage of U.S. Movements in Depression, Recession, and Historical Perspective." Mobilization 21(4):393-412. [Link]
    Kane, Melinda, and Thomas Elliott. 2014. "Turning to the Courts: A Quantitative Analysis of the Gay and Lesbian Movement's Use of Legal Mobilization." Sociological Focus 47(4):219-231 [PDF] [Link]
    Judith Treas and Thomas A. Elliott. 2014. "Sex, Family and Social Change." In Judith Treas, Jacqueline Scott, and Martin P.M. Richards. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Families (2nd edition). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers. Pp. 527-546.
    Amenta, Edwin, Beth Gharrity Gardner, Amber Celina Teirney, Anaid Yerena, and Thomas Elliott. 2012. "A Story-Centered Approach to the Newspaper Coverage of High-Profile SMOs." Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 33:83-107 [PDF]

    Presentations

    "Recruiting the News: A Topic Modeling and Discourse Network Analysis of Mainstream Newspaper Coverage of Homosexuality, 1950-2010", SCANCOR Monday Seminar Series, 2016, Stanford University.
    "Strategies, Stories, and the Quality of News Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement." American Sociological Association, 2015, Chicago, IL, with Edwin Amenta, Nicole Clorinda Shortt, and Amber Celina Tierney.
    "Cultural Tastes and Race: Interest-Based Boundaries Among Daters." American Sociological Association, 2015, Chicago, IL, with Matt Rafalow (presenting) and Cynthia Feliciano.
    "Perverts, Homosexuals, Gays, and Lesbians: Newspaper Coverage of Homosexuality, 1950-2010." American Sociological Association, 2014, San Francisco, CA.
    "Economic Protest Movements of the Great Depression and Great Recession." American Sociological Association, 2014, San Francisco, CA, with Edwin Amenta and Amber Tierney.
    "Politics, Movements, and Policy: Recipes for Influence over U.S. Old-Age Policy in Its Formative Years." Voters, Protest and Policies: Bridging Public Opinion, Social Movement Outcomes and Policy Responsiveness Research, 2014, University of Leicester, with Edwin Amenta and Charles Ragin.
    "The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of Discourse About Homosexuality." Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference, 2014, Notre Dame.
    "Paths to Coverage: Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969-2009." American Sociological Association, 2013, New York, NY, with Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren.
    "Good Press: SMO's Sustained and Substantive Coverage in Major Newspapers." American Sociological Association, 2013, New York, NY, with Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, and Amber Celina Tierney.
    "Paths to Coverage: Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969-2009." Bridging the Divide: Qualitative Comparative Analysis from Theory to Praxis, May 13, 2013, UCI.
    "Demonstrating Time Series Analysis With Newspaper Coverage of LGBT Organizations." Statistics Group, April 17, 2013, UCI.
    "Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Data Analysis Example." Statistics Group, February 27, 2013, UCI.
    "Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction." Statistics Group, January 16, 2013, UCI.
    "Policy Influence on Social Movements: Newspaper Coverage of LGBT SMOs." American Sociological Association, 2012, Denver, CO, with Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren.
    "Dramatic Action, Assertive Action, and Securing Demands: Newspaper Coverage of SMOs and the Townsend Plan." American Sociological Association, 2011, Las Vegas, NV, with Edwin Amenta, Beth Gharrity Gardner, Amber Celina Tierney, and Anaid Yerena.
    "Policy Influence on Social Movements: The Impact of Policy Reforms on LGBT and AIDS Organizations" Roundtable at American Sociological Association annual meeting, 2011, Las Vegas, NV
    "Gaining Attention: Explaining Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT and AIDS Movement 1969-2007." Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, 2011, Seattle, WA.
    "Turning to the Courts: A Quantitative Analysis of the Gay and Lesbian Movement's Use of Legal Mobilization." Southern Sociological Society annual meeting, Atlanta, GA, as second author (presented by Dr. Melinda Kane).

    Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

    2015 - Excellence in Mentorship Award, Department of Sociology, UCI
    2014 - Excellence in Research Award, Department of Sociology, UCI
    2014 - James Harvey Scholar Award, $8,000
    2013 - Graduate Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, $10,000
    2012 - Associate Dean's Fellowship, $10,500
    2007 - Social Science Merit Award (five years of funding, including 3 quarters of fellowship and 12 quarters of teaching assistantship)

    Professional Activities & Affiliations

    Manuscript Reviewer: Mobilization, Social Science Research, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, Journal of Business Research, Social Problems, Sociology Compass
    Book Reviewer: Mobilization
    2007-current: Member; American Sociological Association
    2007-2012: Member; Pacific Sociological Association
    2009-2013: Cohort Representative to Sociological Graduate Student Association