Benjamin is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sociology and the Centre for Advanced Studies at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics.  His areas of research include social and labor movements, networks, and heterodox methods.  His dissertation analyzed the growth of labor contention in the United States during the late nineteenth century, questioning how some local events escalated into large-scale social upheaval.  Ben’s work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, the International Journal of Emergency Management, the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, and elsewhere.  His statistical package of choice is R.