Nan Feng

NYU-IPK Scholar

Google Scholar

Nan Feng is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. She received her PhD in Sociology from Cornell University in 2024. She studies how inequality shapes and is shaped by social networks. She pursues this inquiry through three interrelated lines of research. The first line of research addresses inequality in social ties and social integration within large social collectivities. The second line of research investigates how social networks reinforce socio-economic disadvantage and the resulting impact on health. The third line of research explores the role of geographic proximity in high-stakes business relationships within America’s venture capital market.

What’s new about me

  • Our paper “Inequality and Social Ties: Evidence from 15 US Data Sets” was published on Sociological Science (May 2025).
  • Our paper “Long-Term Impacts of Incarceration Exposure and Social Network Stability in Later Life” was published on The Prison Journal (May 2025).
  • I joined the project on how social infrastructure shapes cities and communities at IPK(NYU)
  • I started my postdoc at IPK, NYU in January 2025.
  • I graduated from Cornell Sociology in December 2024.
  • Our work on “Decomposing Effects of Social Capital on Occupational Mobility: A Network Approach” was presented at the 10th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2). Collaborated with Lemeng Liang, Daniel Putman, and Jiao Guo, July 2024.
  • I presented “Geographic Proximity in the Start-up Economy: Venture Capital Investments from 1980-2022” at Annual Meeting of Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). Collaborated with Cristobal Young, June 2024.
  • I served as the moderator for paper session “Markets, Firms and Institutions” at SASE 2024.
  • I presented “The Spatial Constriction and Sprawl of Venture Capital Investment from 1980-2022” at International School and Conference on Network Science (NetSci). Collaborated with Cristobal Young, June 2024. 
  • I received multiple conference grants from Cornell University.
  • I presented “Who Switches Jobs and Gets Ahead? The Role of Social Capital in Occupational Mobility via a Network Approach” at The annual meeting of the Population Association of America. Collaborated with Lemeng Liang, Daniel Putman, and Jiao Guo, April 2024.
  • I served as a PAA Poster Discussant at “Aging and the Life Course” Session at PAA 2024.

20 Cooper Square

New York, NY 10003

nf2478@nyu.edu