Associate Professor

Public Policy and Sociology

Brooks School of Public Policy

Bryan L. Sykes is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Cornell University and is the Science Core Director for the Cornell Population Center. He is a Senior Associate Editor for Science Advances (the Open Access version of Science magazine), an Ad Hoc Editor for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and is a former Academic Editor for the Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE and former Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Perspectives. He is currently a National Institute of Justice W.E.B. DuBois Scholar.
   
Dr. Sykes received a joint Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from the University of California-Berkeley and completed post-doctoral research at the University of Washington. His research focuses on demography and criminology, with particular interests in fertility, mortality, population health, mass incarceration, social inequality, and research methodology. Professor Sykes’ work on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration has been published in leading social science and medical journals and law reviews. His estimates of racial disparities in incarceration were featured in the National Research Council’s (2014) landmark report on The Growth of Incarceration in the United States, and he served as a co-editor of a double issue on monetary sanctions in RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. His current research project — Shadow Costs: The Effect of Economic and Informational Inequality on Court-Order Compliance — examines how the hidden financial costs of rehabilitation programs affect court-order compliance and public safety, with project funding from the Haynes Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Law & Science and Science of Broadening Participation programs of the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Justice’s W.E.B. DuBois Program of Research on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Justice System.
   
Dr. Sykes routinely provides service to five professional organizations in different capacities: The American Sociological Association (ASA), the Population Association of America (PAA), the American Society of Criminology (ASC), the Law & Society Association (LSA), and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). 
   
Prior to joining Cornell University in 2023, Professor Sykes was the Faculty Assistant to the Provost, the Inaugural Inclusive Excellence Term Chair Professor, and a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California-Irvine. He has served in the academic senates of DePaul University, the University of California-Irvine, and Cornell University, and was the Faculty Senate Chair (2021-2022) and Vice Chair (2020-2021) for the School of Social Ecology at the University of California-Irvine. Dr. Sykes also served an elected three-year term on the Board of Trustees for the Law & Society Association and served as the ranking member of the Executive Committee during 2023-2024.

Candidate Statement:

I am delighted to be considered for a position on the University Faculty Committee (UFC). I have served in the faculty senates of three universities, and during my time in these deliberative bodies, I have come to recognize and value the time and effort past leaders have expended in building more inclusive and welcoming environments. As a Cornell Faculty Senate Member, I have been fortunate to work alongside many of our talented colleagues, making decisions that strengthen our university cohesiveness and identity, while also asking the tough questions necessary to guide the institution through changing and challenging times. As a UFC member, I will continue to bring my curious mind, respectful attitude, and unyielding persistence to a range of questions and issues that are of utmost importance and concern to faculty, students, and staff at Cornell: professionalization; equity, diversity, and inclusion; budgetary policies and fiscal decisions; and institutional practices and public safety.

Further Information:

https://www.bryanlsykes.com/
https://www.shadowcosts.com/