TIMOTHY B. ELDER

The Dartmouth Institute
Dartmouth College
Lebanon, NH 03766

academic positions

• Research Associate, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, 2024-2026.

education

• PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago, 2024.
• Dissertation: Winning at a Losing Game - Divergent Ontologies and Shared Practices in Medicine.
• MA, Sociology, University of Chicago, 2018.
• BA, Cum Laude, Philosophy and Sociology, Kent State University, 2016.

books

• Winning at a Losing Game: Medicine's Challenge in Caring for the Dying
• In Preparation


• Introduction to PlainText for Research & Writing: Open Workflows for Reproducible Scholarship
• In Preparation

papers

• Timothy B. Elder, and Austin C. Kozlowski. 2025. “Status and Subfield: The Distribution of Sociological Specializations across Departments.” Poetics 109:101973. 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.101973.


• Timothy B. Elder, “The Operation Was Successful, and the Patient Died: Success and Failure in the Care of the Dying”
• Forthcoming at Qualitative Sociology


• Timothy B. Elder, “Ambiguity at the End of Life: The Breakdown of Clinical Heuristics in Serious Illness”
• Under Review at Sociology of Health and Illness

working papers

• Timothy B. Elder, “Discourse of Data and Talk of Values: Integrating Patient-Clinician Decision-Making in End-of-Life Care”

teaching

University of Chicago

• Teaching Assistant, Invitation to Sociology, Spring 2022.
• Teaching Assistant, Maverick Markets. Spring 2020.
• Teaching Assistant, Social, Structure, and Change. Winter 2020.
• Teaching Assistant, Urban Policy Analysis. Autumn 2019.
• Teaching Assistant, Sociology of Human Sexuality. Spring 2020.
• Teaching Intern, Power, Identity, and Resistance. Autumn and Winter 2018-2019.

research

University of Chicago

• Research Assistant, Ensago-Networks Project, Summer and Autumn 2021.
• Course Development, Invitation to Sociology, 2018-2019.

Kent State University

• Research Assistant, Group Processes EEG Laboratory, 2015-2016.

invited talks

• "From Talk to Action: The Role of Interactional Style in Tumor Board Decision-Making", University of Vermont, 2025. Burlington, VT. Vermont Conversation Lab


• "The Operation Was Successful and the Patient Died: Success and Failure in the Care of the Dying", UChicago Medicine, 2025. Chicago, IL. Aging Crossroads Lecture Series, Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Care.


• "The Operation Was Successful and the Patient Died: Success and Failure in the Care of the Dying", Northwestern University, 2024. Chicago, IL. Department of Medicine, Section of Palliative Care.

presentations

• "The Operation was Successful and the Patient Died: Success in the Care of the Dying", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2024 Montreal, Canada, Regular Session Medical Sociology.


• “The Ratlines — Clandestine Networks and Nazi Fugitives at the End of the Second World War” with Hanock A. Spitzer, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2023 Philadelphia, PA, Regular Session Historical Sociology.


• “Intra-Professional Collaboration in the Hospital”, Chicago Ethnography Conference Loyola University, Chicago. April 2023.


• “Intra-Professional Collaboration in Acute Hospital Settings”, Midwest Sociological Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN. March 2023.


• “Intra-Professional Collaboration in Medicine: Applying Ecological Concepts to Hospice and Palliative Medicine”, Eastern Sociological Society Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD. February 2023.


• “Status and Subfield: The Distribution of Sociological Specializations across Departments” with Austin C. Kozlowski, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2022 Los Angeles, CA, Regular Session History of Sociology and Social Thought.


• “Managing Consensus and Dissensus in Palliative Medicine”. Medicine and Its Objects Workshop, University of Chicago, Autumn 2021.


• “An Empirical Investigation of Privacy: The Impact of Multiple Levels of Trust”. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2015 Chicago, IL. Roundtable.


• “An Empirical Perspective on Altman's Theory of Privacy.” North Central Sociological Association 2015 Cleveland, OH.

research interests

• Sociology of Medicine
• Qualitative Methods
• Computational Methods
• Health Services Research
• Organizations
• Death and Dying

service

• Creator and Coordinator, PlainText Working Group. Winter and Spring 2023.
• Book Review Board, American Journal of Sociology, 2021-2022.
• Manuscript Board, American Journal of Sociology, 2018-2019.
• Student Coordinator, Social Theory and Evidence Workshop, 2018-2019.
• Student Coordinator, UChicago Sociology Colloquium, 2018-2019.
• Co-Chair, Society for Social Research, 2018-2019.
• Reviewer, American Journal of Sociology, Sexuality & Culture, Journal of Public Health and Community Medicine

professional membership

• Eastern Sociological Society. 2022-Present.
• American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 2021-Present.
• Midwest Sociological Society. 2019-2022.
• American Sociological Association. 2015-Present.

references