Health care takes place in clinics and hospitals, but health itself is shaped much earlier through neighborhoods, families, workplaces, and the policies that quietly influence opportunity.

For Corey Abramson, an associate professor of sociology at Rice University, understanding this relationship requires a blend of immersive fieldwork and advanced computational methods. His research draws on more than two decades of close observation in cancer clinics, dementia care facilities, hospitals, and urban neighborhoods, combined with large-scale data analysis, to explore how health and American society continually shape one another. This work has earned him a yearlong residency at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University a fellowship that, for over 70 years, has convened scholars whose ideas have transformed disciplines and influenced national policy.

“CASBS has shaped some of the most important scholarship in the social and behavioral sciences over the past 70 years, and being named a fellow is a real honor,” Abramson said. “The fellowship allows me to continue my work alongside a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars.”

The fellowship will also give him dedicated time to further develop scientific machine learning and AI-driven approaches for qualitative health research. Abramson’s team began working on these methods before the recent rise of widely accessible generative AI tools, placing them at the forefront of efforts to responsibly incorporate AI into social science.

At Rice, Abramson co-directs the Center for Computational Insights on Inequality and Society and leads the Computational Ethnography Lab, where he mentors students working at the intersection of qualitative research, computation, and public policy. The fellowship will broaden opportunities for student collaborators and help bring participants’ lived experiences into policy discussions.

According to publicly available fellowship records, Abramson is the first residential fellow selected while holding a faculty appointment at Rice in the program’s modern (post-2007) era.

It’s a real privilege, he said. I see it as a reflection of Rice’s commitment to rigorous social science and the support I’ve received since joining the university. It’s also a chance to represent Rice in a community where sustained, collaborative scholarship truly matters.

Source: https://news.rice.edu/news/2026/abramson-advancing-research-intersection-health-inequality-and-ai