Independent researcher, Chicago, IL, 2026–present.
academic positions
Research Associate, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, 2024-2026.
education
PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago, 2024.
Dissertation: Winning at a Losing Game - Divergent Ontologies and Shared Practices in Medicine.
MA, Sociology, University of Chicago, 2018.
BA, Cum Laude, Philosophy and Sociology, Kent State University, 2016.
books
Winning at a Losing Game: Medicine's Limits in Caring for the Dying
In Preparation
Introduction to PlainText for Research & Writing: Open Workflows for Reproducible Scholarship
In Preparation
papers
Timothy B. Elder, 2026. “Ambiguity at the End of Life: Clinical Heuristics and the Problem of Terminal Illness.” Sociology of Health and Illness 48(4):e70197. 10.1111/1467-9566.70197.
Timothy B. Elder, 2026. “The Operation Was Successful and the Patient Died: Processes for Achieving a Good Death.” Qualitative Sociology. 10.1007/s11133-025-09626-9.
Timothy B. Elder, and Austin C. Kozlowski. 2025. “Status and Subfield: The Distribution of Sociological Specializations across Departments.” Poetics 109:101973. 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.101973.
working papers
“Discourse of Data and Talk of Values: Integrating Patient-Clinician Decision-Making in End-of-Life Care”
“The Moral Reasoning of Machines: Medical Ethics and Large Language Models”.
“Scholarly Impact and Productivity Score: A New Author Level Bibliographic Metric”.
teaching
University of Chicago
Teaching Assistant, Invitation to Sociology, Spring 2022.
Teaching Assistant, Maverick Markets. Spring 2020.
Teaching Assistant, Social, Structure, and Change. Winter 2020.
Teaching Assistant, Sociology of Human Sexuality. Spring 2020.
Teaching Intern, Power, Identity, and Resistance. Autumn and Winter 2018-2019.
research
University of Chicago
Research Assistant, Ensago-Networks Project, Summer and Autumn 2021.
Course Development, Invitation to Sociology, 2018-2019.
Kent State University
Research Assistant, Group Processes EEG Laboratory, 2015-2016.
invited talks
"From Talk to Action: The Role of Interactional Style in Tumor Board Decision-Making", University of Vermont, 2025. Burlington, VT. Vermont Conversation Lab
"The Operation Was Successful and the Patient Died: Success and Failure in the Care of the Dying", UChicago Medicine, 2025. Chicago, IL. Aging Crossroads Lecture Series, Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Care.
"The Operation Was Successful and the Patient Died: Success and Failure in the Care of the Dying", Northwestern University, 2024. Chicago, IL. Department of Medicine, Section of Palliative Care.
presentations
"The Operation was Successful and the Patient Died: Success in the Care of the Dying", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2024 Montreal, Canada, Regular Session Medical Sociology.
“The Ratlines — Clandestine Networks and Nazi Fugitives at the End of the Second World War” with Hanock A. Spitzer, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2023 Philadelphia, PA, Regular Session Historical Sociology.
“Intra-Professional Collaboration in the Hospital”, Chicago Ethnography Conference Loyola University, Chicago. April 2023.
“Intra-Professional Collaboration in Acute Hospital Settings”, Midwest Sociological Society Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN. March 2023.
“Intra-Professional Collaboration in Medicine: Applying Ecological Concepts to Hospice and Palliative Medicine”, Eastern Sociological Society Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD. February 2023.
“Status and Subfield: The Distribution of Sociological Specializations across Departments” with Austin C. Kozlowski, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2022 Los Angeles, CA, Regular Session History of Sociology and Social Thought.
“Managing Consensus and Dissensus in Palliative Medicine”. Medicine and Its Objects Workshop, University of Chicago, Autumn 2021.
“An Empirical Investigation of Privacy: The Impact of Multiple Levels of Trust”. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2015 Chicago, IL. Roundtable.
“An Empirical Perspective on Altman's Theory of Privacy.” North Central Sociological Association 2015 Cleveland, OH.