/about

Currently, I am Full Professor at the Institute of Sociology at RWTH Aachen University and I am also Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin. Previously, I was Professor at the School of Sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland and was Visiting Professor at the Institute of Sociology at University of Zurich and Simon Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester. Before, I was Assistant Professor and Deputy Director at the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University, Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Futures Studies and Stockholm University and post-doctoral fellow at ETH Zurich and Université de Montréal. I studied Computer Science and Sociology at the University of Trier (Diplom), University of Cambridge (MPhil) and the University of Oxford (DPhil).

CV
​Staff profile
​Teaching philosophy
Youtube channel

/what is sociology?

/professor g

/teaching offline or online?

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/research

I am interested in (1) how social structures limit individuals’ view of the world; (2) how embeddedment in social context affects individuals’ behavior and relational choices; and (3) how combined relational patterns lead to broader macro-level outcomes (e.g. cooperation, crime, segregation). By addressing these issues in very different empirical settings, my work reaches across disciplinary boundaries and demonstrates the originality of the approach I propose.  Lately, I have been developing a new software suite for doing network analysis using Stata.

/publications

 Books and Special Issues
  • Grund, T. and Hedström, P. (forthcoming) Social Network Analysis Using Stata. College Station: Stata Press.
  • Helbing, D. and Grund, T.  (2013) (eds.) Special Issue: Agent-Based Modeling and Techno-Social Systems. Advances in Complex Systems, Vol. 16, Issue 4 & 5.
  • Kron, T. and Grund, T. (2010) (eds.) Analytische Soziologie in der Diskussion. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Journal Articles 
Book Chapters, Reviews and Other Publications
  • Morselli, C., Boivin, R. and Grund, T. (2015) Network Opportunities and Crime-Specific Patterns in a Co-offending Population, in Malm, A. and Bichler, G. (eds.) (2015) Preventing Crime and Network Analysis, Crime Prevention Studies, Vol. 28. London: FirstForumPress, pp. 47-65.
  • Grund, T (2014) Book Review: Agent-Based Computational Sociology. Acta Sociologica, Vol. 57, Issue 4, pp. 371-372.
  • Grund, T. (2014) Network Size and Homophily: Same-Sex Friendships in 595 Scandinavian Schools, in Manzo, G. (eds.) (2014) Analytical Sociology. Norms, Actions, Networks. New York: Wiley, pp. 299-316.
  • Grund, T. (2013) Book Review: Dynamical Processes on Complex Networks (4th ed). Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Vol. 37, Issue 2, pp. 131-132.
  • Kron, T. and Grund, T. (2010) Einleitung, in: Kron, T. and Grund, T. (eds.) (2010) Analytische Soziologie in der Diskussion. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp. 7-27.
  • Jäckel, M. and Grund, T. (2005) Eine Mediensoziologie – Aus Sicht der Klassiker, in: Jäckel, M. (2005) (ed.) Mediensoziologie. Grundfragen und Forschungsfelder. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp. 15-32.
  • Papastefanou, G. and Grund, T. (2005) Socio-economic Status Disparities in Fresh Vegetables Consumption: Change and Stability between 1983 and 1998 in West-Germany, in: Oltersdorf, U. et. al. (2005) (eds.). Consumer and Nutrition: Challenges and Chances for Research and Society. Karlsruhe: BFEL, pp. 186-190. 
  • Grund, T. (2004) EVSLabels 1.0.Ein Tool zur automatischen Erstellung von SPSS-Setups für Scientific Use Files der EVS 2003. ZUMA-Methodenbericht 2004/05. Mannheim: ZUMA. 

/rapping

European Social Networks Conference 2019, Zurich, Poster Slam

/podcast

Together with PhD students at University College Dublin I am hosting the podcast "Dublin Calling", where we interview famous sociologists and talk about their research, but also talk more generally about their academic career and the struggles of PhD students and early career faculty.

/teaching excellence award

In 2017 I received the Teaching Excellence Award at University College Dublin and was one of five individuals selected for this award for the whole university. Below is the citation I received with my award:

Dr Thomas Grund was appointed Assistant Professor in Sociology at UCD in 2015. He teaches modules on research methods, social networks and social dynamics at the undergraduate and graduate level. Thomas employs technology enhanced learning strategies to engage and inspire his students in large lecturers – these include thought- provoking video trailers to introduce a new topic, in-class interaction through live-surveys, game-based learning and live experiments involving students.

​In nominating Thomas for an award, students reflected on the impact of his innovative teaching strategies on their learning. His dynamic teaching style is engaging and ensures lively interaction between teacher and students throughout every lecture. His ‘blended’ approach encourages students to engage with readings, recorded lectures and other learning materials both before and after his lecturers, which hugely enriches their overall learning experience.

Thomas is influential within his school and college, acting as a role model and providing practical support to colleagues wishing to incorporate tools and technologies to enhance their teaching practice. Thomas’s research interests are social and criminal networks. Congratulations to Thomas on this Teaching Excellence Award

/teaching

  • SOC 40760 Dynamic Social Networks
  • SOC 40470 Analytical Sociology and Applications
  • SOC 20230 Analytical Sociology
  • SOC 10170 Sociological Analysis and Research Design
  • View more courses


​/press

At several occasions my work has been reported by the press: 
Die Zeit, Wall Street Journal, ScienceDaily, ScienceNews  ,
 The Guardian, Irish Examiner, The Voice, The National 

/contact

thomas.grund [at] ucd.ie