Mark C. Pachucki

I am a sociologist who investigates phenomena at the intersection of social determinants of health, social network dynamics, and culture. While it is commonly accepted that culture and social context reciprocally shape our health, understanding the structure and meanings of relationships can give additional insight into individuals' health behaviors and disparities over the life course. For more information about my current course offerings, publications, educational philosophies, research projects, and full CV, visit my personal website, which I tend to update more frequently than this one.

Education

(Post-doctoral fellowship, RWJF Health & Society Scholars, UC San Francisco & UC Berkeley, 2012)

(Ph.D., Sociology, Harvard University, 2010)

(M.A., Sociology, Harvard University, 2007)

(B.A., Sociology, Columbia University, 2003) 

Research areas

Social networks, social determinants of health, computational social science, culture

Selected publications

Pachucki, Mark C., Anthony Paik. 2023. "Ditching a friend who is not like you can deepen social inequality." The Conversation. April 10, 2023

Paik, Anthony, Mark C. Pachucki, Hsin Fei Tu. 2023. "“Defriending” in a polarized age: Political and racial homophily and tie dissolution." Social Networks 74: 31-41.

Levy, Douglas, Mark C. Pachucki, A. James O’Malley, Bianca Porneala, Anne Thorndike. 2021. “Social connections and the healthfulness of food choices in an employee population.” Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01103-x 

Pachucki, Mark C., Diego Leal. 2020. “Is Having an Educationally Diverse Social Network Good for Health?” Network Science. Vol 8(3): 418-444.

Pachucki, Mark C., Ronald L. Breiger. 2020. “Network Theories.” Kivisto, Peter, ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory. Cambridge University Press.

Hoyt, Lindsay T., Li Niu, Mark C. Pachucki, Natasha Chaku. 2020. “The Role of Pubertal Timing for Boys and Girls: Implications for Population Health.” Social Science & Medicine: Population Health. Vol. 10: 100549.

Niu, Li, Lindsay Till Hoyt, Mark C. Pachucki. 2019. “Context matters: Adolescent neighborhood and school influences on young adult body mass index.” Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 64(3):405-410.

Pachucki, Mark C., Andrew Karter, Nancy E. Adler, Howard Moffet, E Margaret Warton, Dean Schillinger, Bethany Hendrickson, Barbara A. Laraia. 2018. “Eating with others and meal location are differentially associated with nutrient intake by sex: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE).” Appetite. Vol. 127: 203-213.

Raghavan, Sridharan, Mark C. Pachucki, Yuchiao Chang, Bianca Porneala, Caroline S. Fox, Josée Dupuis, James Meigs. 2016. “Incident type 2 diabetes risk is influenced by obesity and diabetes in social contacts: a social network analysis in the Framingham Offspring Study.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vol 31: 1127-1133.

Abbott, Katherine, Mark C. Pachucki. 2016. “Associations over time between Social Network Attributes, Cognitive Function, and Quality of Life among Residents in a Dementia Special Care Unit: A Pilot Study.” Dementia: The international journal of social research and practice, Vol.16(8), 1004-19.

Pachucki, Mark C., Emily Ozer, Alain Barrat, Ciro Cattuto. 2015. “Mental health & socialization in early adolescence: A dynamic study of social interaction behaviors.” Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 125: 40-50.

Pachucki, Mark C. 2014. “Food choices and peer relationships: Examining ‘a taste for necessity’ in a network context / Alimentation et réseau social : Une étude sur « le goût par nécessité » en contexte social.” Sociologie et Sociétés, Vol. 45(2): 229-252.

Pachucki, Mark C. 2012. “Classifying quality: Cognition, interaction, and status appraisal of art museums.” Poetics, Vol. 40(1): 67-90.

Pachucki, Mark A., Paul F. Jacques, Nicholas A. Christakis. 2011. “Social network concordance in food choice among spouses, friends, and siblings.” American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 101(11): 2170-2177.

Pachucki, Mark A., Ronald Breiger. 2010. “Cultural Holes: Beyond Relationality in Social Networks and Culture.” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 36: 205-224.

Pachucki, Mark A., Sabrina Pendergrass, Michèle Lamont. 2007. “Boundary processes: Recent theoretical developments and new contributions.” Poetics, Vol. 35: 331-351.