Welcome to the Cornell Dating Preferences Study

Steven Alvarado

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor

Department of Sociology

My research focuses on questions regarding inequality on various levels including race and ethnicity, education, neighborhoods, health, immigration, and criminal justice contact in the U.S. I rely on mostly restricted nationally representative longitudinal data and quantitative methods. My work has been published in Social Forces, Social Science Research, Race and Social Problems, and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. I received my B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and my Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition, I have been a fellow of the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.

Savanna Lim '21

Research Member

Houston, Texas & Singapore

Hi! I’m Savanna and I’m an Urban Planning major from Singapore and Houston, Texas. On campus, I’m involved with Student Assembly, Thread Magazine, and CAPSU. I took a sociology class with Professor Alvarado my Freshman Fall and have been working on this research team ever since. I’m interested to see how who we are, where we are from, and the cultures we grew up with affect our subconscious biases. On the side, I love photography, trying new food, and complaining about how automobile-oriented America is.

Ashley Liu '21

Research Member

Los Angeles, CA

Hey! I’m Ashley and I am a Government major with a minor in Inequality Studies. I’m interested in the interplay between race and power and its impact on our identity, status, and political structures. I joined this project after taking a course with Professor Alvarado on race and ethnicity in the United States and am excited to further investigate what I’ve learned in the context of my own community and peers.

Elijah Ruiz ‘19

Research Member

Chicago, IL

Hi, I’m Elijah and I am a senior studying Sociology at Cornell University. As a Sociology major, I am fascinated by how social structures and systems can influence individuals’ values, beliefs, and attitudes. I joined this research project after receiving an invitation from Sociology professor Steven Alvarado, and am grateful that I can conduct research on a topic that I am passionate about.

Tyler Correawhite ‘21

Research Member

Brooklyn, NY

Hey! I’m Tyler and I am an Industrial and Labor Relations major with minors in Inequality Studies and Business. Throughout my studies, I've developed a passion for understanding the problems that plague our world. This passion has guided my involvement in various community organizations, for example, The Black Women’s Support Network, where I place value on the advancement of black women within my community by creating spaces as well as educate my peers on resources to aid them in navigating spaces within this predominately white institution, Cornell. Through this, I have gained interest in finding data to speak truth to the common misconceptions of inclusivity of marginalized communities. Our generation has been rendered a ‘progressive’ society and I wonder if we actually are a generation that values this inclusivity by being more open to dating someone who identifies differently. I am the product of an interracial marriage, and I wonder as we continue to become a more progressive society how much do we value inclusivity to the degree in which we claim we do.

Sydni Green ‘20

Research Member

Oakland, CA

Hey! My name is Sydni and I am a Sociology and Government double-major with minors in Law & Society and Inequality Studies. On campus I am the co-president of Planned Parenthood Generation Action and Consent Education. I also work for Cornell Recreational services as an intramural sports supervisor. I am interested in how race and gender create power structures within society and affect inequality. As someone who is the product of an interracial marriage, I was very interested to research a topic that has had a large effect on my own life.

Toyosi Elemo ‘20

Research Member

Baltimore, MD

Hello, I’m Toyosi and I’m a Human Development major with a minor in Leadership. On campus, I serve as the current Vice President of The Curly Initiative, and as a Resident Advisor in the Low Rises. Being a Human Development major, I am interested in how we come to develop certain aspects of ourselves, especially how various environmental, sociocultural, psychological and biological factors come into play in shaping these dimensions of ourselves. This research project is particularly exciting to me because I’ll get to learn from a sociological perspective on how our preferences for non-platonic partners may be guided by race– amongst other things.

Simran Khosla ‘20

Research Member

Cleveland, OH

Hey! My name is Simran J. Khosla and I am an American Studies major, minoring in Inequality Studies and Communication. Throughout my time here at Cornell, I have been intrigued by studying the way people think and make decisions, finding patterns in them, and seeing how these patterns manifest in our society today. This fascination has led me to organizations such as Cornell Minds Matter, of which I am the VP of Communication and the Womxn of Color Coalition, of which I am the Co-Events Planner. This research project allows us to gain insight from societal trends here at Cornell, equipping us with a better understanding of how our decisions play out on campus. To me, learning about the norms and habits of my own campus is extremely perspicacious and I am thankful to be a part of such an interesting project.