Skip to main content

James Moody

Professor in the Department of Sociology
Sociology
Box 90088, Durham, NC 27708-0088
268 Soc/Psych Bldg., Durham, NC 27708

Overview


James Moody is the Robert O. Keohane professor of sociology at Duke University. He has published extensively in the field of social networks, methods, and social theory. His work has focused theoretically on the network foundations of social cohesion and diffusion, with a particular emphasis on building tools and methods for understanding dynamic social networks. He has used network models to help understand school racial segregation, adolescent health, disease spread, economic development, and the development of scientific disciplines. Moody's work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has appeared in top social science, health and medical journals. He is winner of INSNA's (International Network for Social Network Analysis) Freeman Award for scholarly contributions to network analysis, founding director of the Duke Network Analysis Center and editor of the on-line Journal of Social Structure.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor in the Department of Sociology · 2010 - Present Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Faculty Director of the Duke Network Analysis Center (DNAC) · 2020 - Present Duke Network Analysis Center, Social Science Research Institute
Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center · 2010 - Present Duke Population Research Center, Duke Population Research Institute
Bass Fellow · 2016 - Present Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published August 25, 2022
Duke Team Awarded $1 Million to Predict the Next Pandemic
Published February 12, 2018
Big Questions, Far Connections: Visualizing Research Ties Across Campus
Published March 14, 2017
Webs of Minds and Ideas Bind Dukes Campus

View All News

Recent Publications


Gaps in Effective HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Screening and Uptake Among Fishermen in Kenya.

Journal Article AIDS and behavior · April 2026 Despite oral daily HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) effectiveness, uptake remains a challenge. Awareness of one's HIV status and engagement in prevention is essential to interrupting transmission among populations at high risk of HIV. We explored gaps i ... Full text Cite

Rethinking Financial Status: A Comprehensive Case-Based Approach

Journal Article Social Currents · April 1, 2026 Financial status—the configuration of a household’s income, assets, and debts—shapes economic security, social position, influence, and opportunities for intergenerational transmission of well-being. Yet prior research typically relies on single, summed in ... Full text Cite

Social influence on women's contraceptive use: Population-based, sociocentric network study in rural Uganda.

Journal Article Social science & medicine (1982) · March 2026 Myriad barriers impede women's access to contraception in Uganda and affect their reproductive autonomy. Almost half of married women of reproductive age in Uganda want to avoid pregnancy and one-third are undecided, yet only 38% use modern contraception. ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


US-Israel Collab: Market Integration, Land Use, and Pathogen Transmission in Rural Madagascar

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2023 - 2028

Risk factor analysis and dynamic response for epidemics in heterogeneous populations

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2024 - 2027

View All Grants

Education


University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 1999 Ph.D.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 1997 M.A.
University of Oregon · 1992 B.S.