• Ph.D., Sociology, Mississippi State University

Dr. Arthur G. Cosby is a William L. Giles Distinguished Professor at Mississippi State University (MSU). He served as Director and is a Research Fellow at the SSRC and a Professor of Sociology. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Mississippi State University in 1969 and has held prior faculty positions at Louisiana State University and Texas A & M University. He has numerous publications and conference presentations in the area of “public sociology.” His research applies social science knowledge to such real-world problems as health, poverty, career development, racial disparities, tobacco control, families/children and policy studies. From 1981 to 1987, Dr. Cosby was the Thomas L. Bailey Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work. In 2003, he was the founding Director of the Mississippi Health Policy Research Center, and in 2000, he served as the Executive Director of the Rural Health, Safety, and Security Institute. His research program has been supported by numerous agencies and foundations, including the American Cancer Society, The Bower Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Economic Research Service, the Ministero dell Istruzione, dell Universita’e della Ricera, Italy, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the National Institute of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Rural Health Policy (HRSA), the Phil Hardin Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, as well as numerous state agencies. Dr. Cosby’s current research focuses on a number of approaches to investigating the social climate for the improvement of health and well being in America. These include such topics as the social and cultural dimensions of pain, healthy and unhealthy places in America and geographic and racial disparities. In 2005, he was first editor of About Children: An Authoritative Resource on the State of Childhood Today which was released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on its 75th anniversary.