Staff profile

• I am Director of the Durham Research Methods Centre, Co-Director of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, and Director of InSPIRE, a research and policy consortium for mitigating the impact of air pollution on brain health and dementia. 
• I am also on the steering group for Health@Durham and a member of the Health and Social Theory Research Group.
• In terms of external affiliations, I am Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Northeast Ohio Medical University; Co-Editor of the Routledge Complexity in Social Science series; and a Co-I at CECAN (Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus)
• I am trained as a sociologist, clinical psychologist and methodologist.

• My areas of research are:
  • environmental change, social determinants and health
  • Air pollution, exposome and brain health (including cognitive function, mental health, and dementia)
  • the complexities of place and public health
  • complexity in public policy evaluation
  • computational and interdisciplinary methods for decision making
  • configurational theory and method
  • CLICK HERE for links to all publications, grants and invites.

• ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HEALTH: My colleagues and I have developed the InSPIRE, a research and policy consortium for mitigating the impact that air pollution and the exposome have on brain health across the life course (including cognitive function, mental health, and dementia). InSPIRE is comprised of 20+ academics across the UK and Europe and a growing stakeholder ecosystem, with links to local and UK government, including Defra and UK Health Security Agency. 

•  METHOD: interdisciplinary methods and case-based computational modelling for decision making: I have spent the past ten years developing a new case-based, data-mining approach to modeling complex social systems – called the SACS Toolkit – which my colleagues and I have used to help researchers, policy makers and service providers address and improve complex public health issues such as community health and well-being; infrastructure and grid reliability; mental health and inequality; big data and data mining; and globalization and global civil society.

• We have also recently developed COMPLEX-IT, an R-studio software app, which provides policy evaluators (and those working in health, food, environment and social service sectors) seamless access to such high-powered techniques as machine intelligence, neural nets, and agent-based modeling to make better sense of the complex world(s) in which they live and work. It is freely downloadable and soon to be developed into an online version.

• POLICY EVALUATION: complexity in public policy evaluation and practice: Through my work with CECAN (Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus), my applied work presently has two foci: helping to improve how we address the complexities of public policy evaluation, and advancing a policy agenda for dealing with air quality, exposome and brain health.

• THEORY: Configurational complexity theory and method: Over the past fifteen years I have been developing a theoretical and methodological framework for studying social complexity, which is based on a case-based configurational approach. In particular, I am focused on how social science theory informs the insights of complexity science, as in the case of power relations, inequality, and human psychology. 

CLICK HERE to read my blog on all things complexity.

CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO ALL PUBLICATIONS, GRANTS & INVITED PRESENTATIONS

• Air pollution and brain health, including dementia
• Case-based complexity and computational modelling
• Complexities of place and health
• Complexity and psychology, including cognition, emotions, and consciousness
• Configurational complexity theory
• Big data and digital sociology
• Complexity methods for policy evaluation

• 2020: Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Amsterdam:
• 2019: Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences UK:
• 2018: Researach Fellow, Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus:
• 2018: Routledge Complexity in Social Science Series (Co-Editor with David Byrne and Emma Uprichard):
• 2018: International Journal of Social Research Methodology (Co-Editor with Rosalind Edwards and Malcolm Williams):
• 2016: Systems Science Scholar Academy Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:
• 2013: Award Recipient Mapping Sciences 2013: National Science Foundation, Places & Spaces Mapping Science.

Authored book

• Castellani, B. (2022). Big Data Mining and Complexity. SAGE Publications
• Castellani, B. (2018). The Defiance of Global Commitment: A Complex Social Psychology. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351137140
• Castellani, B., Rajaram, R., Buckwalter, J. G., Ball, M., & Hafferty, F. (2015). Place and health as complex systems: A case study and empirical test. Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09734-3
• Castellani, B., & Hafferty, F. W. (2009). Sociology and complexity science: a new field of inquiry. Springer Complexity Series
• Castellani, B. (2000). Pathological gambling: The making of a medical problem. SUNY Press

Book review

• Castellani, B. (online). Review of Social Understanding: On Hermeneutics, Geometrical Models and Artificial Intelligence (Theory and Decision Library A:)
• Castellani, B. (2016). The Value of Systems and Complexity Sciences for Healthcare. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 19(4),
• Castellani, B. (2013). Moreira, T. The Transformation of Contemporary Health Care: The Market, the Laboratory, and the Forum. London: Routledge. 2012.(hbk) vii+ 181 pp. ISBN 13: 978-0-415-88600-0. Sociology of Health & Illness, 35(3), 496-497
• Castellani, B. (2010). Review of Mind \& Society: Special Issue on Social Simulation, Volume 8, Number 2, 2009

Chapter in book

• Castellani, B. (2020). The Complex Global Crisis of Population and Public Health. In Y. Apostolopoulos, M. K. Lemke, & K. Hassmiller Lich (Eds.), Complex Systems and Population Health: A Primer. Oxford University Press
• Dister, C. J., Castellani, B., & Rajaram, R. (2018). Modeling social complexity in infrastructures: a case-based approach to improving reliability and resiliency. In E. Mitleton-Kelly, A. Paraskevas, & C. Day (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods in Complexity Science: Theory and Applications (267-284). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785364426.00025
• Castellani, B., Rajaram, R., Buckwalter, J. G., Ball, M., & Hafferty, F. (2015). Case-Based Modeling and the SACS Toolkit. In Place and Health as Complex Systems (15-26). Springer, Cham
• Castellani, B., Schimpf, C., & Hafferty, F. (2012). Medical Sociology and Case-Based Complexity Science: A User’s Guide. In Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4998-0_31
• Hafferty, F. W., & Castellani, B. (2011). Two cultures: Two ships: The rise of a professionalism movement within modern medicine and medical sociology’s disappearance from the professionalism debate. In Handbook of the sociology of health, illness, and healing (201-219). Springer, New York, NY
• Hafferty, F., & Castellani, B. (2009). The Hidden Curriculum: A Theory of Medical Education. In C. Brosnan, & B. Turner (Eds.), Handbook of the Sociology of Medical Education (15-38). Routledge
• Hafferty, F. W., & Castellani, B. (2007). Theories of Social Relations. In The behavioral sciences and health care (2nd rev. and updated) (123-129). (2nd). Hogrefe & Huber
• Castellani, B., & Hafferty, F. (2006). The complexities of medical professionalism a preliminary investigation. In Professionalism in Medicine: Critical Perspectives (3-23). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-32727-4_1
• Hafferty, F. W., & Castellani, B. (2006). Medical sociology. In Handbook of twenty-first century sociology (331-338). SAGE Publications
• Castellani, J., & Castellani, B. (2005). Data-mining strategies for researching the effectiveness of assistive and instructional technologies. In Handbook of Special Education Technology Research and Practice. Knowledge by Design
• Castellani, J., & Castellani, B. (2004). Data Mining Process and Analysis Strategies for Special Education Technology Decision-Making. In D. Edyburn, K. Higgins, & R. Boone (Eds.), Handbook of Special Education Technology. Knowledge by Design

Conference Paper

• Giabbanelli, P. J., Badham, J., Castellani, B., Kavak, H., Mago, V., Negahban, A., & Swarup, S. (2021, December). Opportunities and Challenges in Developing COVID-19 Simulation Models: Lessons from Six Funded Projects. Presented at 2021 Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM)
• Lieff, S., Poost-foroosh, L., Baker, L., Castellani, B., Hafferty, F., & Ng, S. L. (2016, April). It takes a village: Academic leaders' conceptions of their social networks: oc2-5

Journal Article

• Giabbanelli, P. J., Voinov, A. A., Castellani, B., & Tornberg, P. (online). Ideal, Best, and Emerging Practices in Creating Artificial Societies. https://doi.org/10.23919/springsim.2019.8732881
• Schimpf, C., & Castellani, B. (2024). Approachable modeling and smart methods: a new methods field of study. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 27(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2022.2111817
• Rajaram, R., Ritchey, N., & Castellani, B. (2024). On the mathematical quantification of inequality in probability distributions. Journal of Physics Communications, 8(8), Article 085002. https://doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528/ad6ad1
• Ziyachi, M., & Castellani, B. (2024). A ‘Cultural Models’ Approach to Psychotherapy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers: A Case Study from the UK. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(5), Article 650. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21050650
• Rajaram, R., Ritchey, N., & Castellani, B. (2024). Mathematical diversity of parts for a continuous distribution. Journal of Physics Communications, 8(2), Article 025008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528/ad2560
• Hodgson, J. R., Benkowitz, C., Castellani, B. C., Ellison, A., Yassaie, R., Twohig, H., Bhudia, R., Jutila, O.-E. I., & Fowler-Davis, S. (2024). A Scoping Review of the Effects of Ambient Air Quality on Cognitive Frailty. Environments, 11(1), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments11010004
• Rajaram, R., Ritchey, N., & Castellani, B. (2023). On the comparison of diversity of parts of a distribution. Journal of Physics Communications, 7(7), Article 075006. https://doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528/ace952
• Castellani, B., Bartington, S., Wistow, J., Heckels, N., Ellison, A., Van Tongeren, M., Arnold, S. R., Barbrook-Johnson, P., Bicket, M., Pope, F. D., Russ, T. C., Clarke, C. L., Pirani, M., Schwannauer, M., Vieno, M., Turnbull, R., Gilbert, N., & Reis, S. (2022). Mitigating the impact of air pollution on dementia and brain health: Setting the policy agenda. Environmental Research, 215(2), Article 114362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114362
• Badham, J., Barbrook-Johnson, P., Caiado, C., & Castellani, B. (2021). Justified Stories with Agent-Based Modelling for Local COVID-19 Planning. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 24(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.4532
• Schimpf, C., Barbrook-Johnson, P., & Castellani, B. (2021). Cased-based modelling and scenario simulation for ex-post evaluation. Evaluation, 27(1), 116-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356389020978490
• Barbrook-Johnson, P., Castellani, B., Hills, D., Penn, A., & Gilbert, N. (2021). Policy evaluation for a complex world: Practical methods and reflections from the UK Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity across the Nexus. Evaluation, 27(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/1356389020976491
• Lieff, S. J., Baker, L., Poost-Foroosh, L., Castellani, B., Hafferty, F. W., & Ng, S. L. (2020). Exploring the Networking of Academic Health Science Leaders. Academic Medicine, 95(10), 1570-1577. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003177
• Rajaram, R., & Castellani, B. (2020). Diversity in complex systems: measuring parts of the distribution to the whole. Journal of Physics Communications, 4(4), Article 045008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528/ab8488
• Schimpf, C., & Castellani, B. (2020). COMPLEX-IT: A Case-Based Modelling and Scenario Simulation Platform for Social Inquiry. Journal of Open Research Software, 8, Article 25. https://doi.org/10.5334/jors.298
• Kingsbury, D. M., Bhatta, M. P., Castellani, B., Khanal, A., Jefferis, E., & Hallam, J. S. (2019). Factors Associated with the Presence of Strong Social Supports in Bhutanese Refugee Women During Pregnancy. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 21, 837–843. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0790-x
• Castellani, B., Barbrook-Johnson, P., & Schimpf, C. (2019). Case-based methods and agent-based modelling: bridging the divide to leverage their combined strengths. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(4), 403-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2018.1563972
• Barbrook-Johnson, P., Schimpf, C., & Castellani, B. (2019). Reflections On the Use of Complexity-Appropriate Computational Modeling for Public Policy Evaluation in the UK. https://doi.org/10.18278/jpcs.5.1.4
• Castellani, B., Griffiths, F., Rajaram, R., & Gunn, J. (2018). Exploring comorbid depression and physical health trajectories: A case-based computational modelling approach. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 24(6), 1293-1309. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.13042
• Kingsbury, D., Bhatta, M., Castellani, B., Khanal, A., Jefferis, E., & Hallam, J. (2018). The Personal Social Networks of Resettled Bhutanese Refugees During Pregnancy in the United States: A Social Network Analysis. Journal of Community Health, 43(6), 1028-1036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-018-0518-9
• Rajaram, R., Castellani, B., & Wilson, A. (2017). Advancing shannon entropy for measuring diversity in systems. Complexity, 2017, Article 8715605. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8715605
• Castellani, B., & Rajaram, R. (2016). Past the power law: Complex systems and the limiting law of restricted diversity. Complexity, 21(S2), 99-112. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.21786
• Castellani, B., Rajaram, R., Gunn, J., & Griffiths, F. (2016). Cases, clusters, densities: Modeling the nonlinear dynamics of complex health trajectories. Complexity, 21(S1), 160-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.21728
• Galen Buckwalter, J., Castellani, B., Mcewen, B., Karlamangla, A. S., Rizzo, A. A., John, B., O'donnell, K., & Seeman, T. (2016). Allostatic load as a complex clinical construct: a case-based computational modeling approach. Complexity, 21(S1), 291-306. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.21743
• Rajaram, R., & Castellani, B. (2016). An entropy based measure for comparing distributions of complexity. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 453, 35-43
• Rajaram, R., & Castellani, B. (2015). The utility of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, specifically transport theory, for modeling cohort data. Complexity, 20(4), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.21512
• Hafferty, F. W., Castellani, B., Hafferty, P. K., & Pawlina, W. (2013). Anatomy and histology as socially networked learning environments: Some preliminary findings. Academic Medicine, 88(9), 1315-1323
• Rajaram, R., & Castellani, B. (2012). Modeling complex systems macroscopically: Case/agent-based modeling, synergetics, and the continuity equation. Complexity, 18(2), 8-17
• Castellani, B., & Rajaram, R. (2012). Case-based modeling and the SACS Toolkit: a mathematical outline. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 18(2), 153-174
• Hafferty, F. W., & Castellani, B. (2010). The increasing complexities of professionalism. Academic Medicine, 85(2), 288-301
• Hafferty, F., & Castellani, B. (2009). A sociological framing of medicine's modern-day professionalism movement. Medical Education, 43(9), 826-828. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03445.x
• Castellani, B., Hafferty, F., & Ball, M. (2009). E-Social Science from a Systems Perspective: Applying the SACS Toolkit
• Castellani, B., Castellani, J., & Spray, S. L. (2003). Grounded neural networking: Modeling complex quantitative data. Symbolic Interaction, 26(4), 577-589
• Castellani, B., & Castellani, J. (2003). Data mining: qualitative analysis with health informatics data. Qualitative Health Research, 13(7), 1005-1018
• Wear, D., & Castellani, B. (2002). Motherhood and medicine: The experience of double consciousness
• Wear, D., & Castellani, B. (2000). The development of professionalism: curriculum matters. Academic Medicine, 75(6), 602-611
• Castellani, B., & Wear, D. (2000). Physician views on practicing professionalism in the corporate age. Qualitative Health Research, 10(4), 490-506. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973200129118598
• Wear, D., & Castellani, B. (2000). (Re) considering Context in Patient-Doctor Relationships
• Wear, D., & Castellani, B. (1999). Conflicting plots and narrative d ysfunction in health care. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 42(4), 544-558
• Castellani, B. (1999). Michel Foucault and Symbolic Interactionism: The Making of a New Theory of Interaction
• Castellani, B., Wedgeworth, R., Wootton, E., & Rugle, L. (1997). A bi-directional theory of addiction: examining coping and the factors related to substance relapse. Addictive Behaviors, 22(1), 139-144
• Castellani, B., Wootton, E., Rugle, L., Wedgeworth, R., Prabucki, K., & Olson, R. (1996). Homelessness, negative affect, and coping among veterans with gambling problems who misused substances. Psychiatric Services, 47(3), 298-299. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.47.3.298
• Castellani, B., & Rugle, L. (1995). A comparison of pathological gamblers to alcoholics and cocaine misusers on impulsivity, sensation seeking, and craving. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826089509048726

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Castellani, B. (2019). Map of the complexity sciences
• Castellani, B. (2009). Sociology and Complexity Science Blog. [Blog]

Other (Print)

• Ziyachi, M., Castellani, B., Heckels, N., Clarke, C., Fullertonf, N., Barbrook-Johnson, P., & Bicketc, M. (2023). Mitigating the impact of air pollution on brain health and dementia: Policy and practice brief
• Castellani, B. (2014). Brian Castellani on the Complexity Sciences
• Castellani, B. (2014). FOCUS: Complexity and the failure of quantitative social science
• Hafferty, F., & Castellani, B. (2010). La complejidad creciente del profesionalismo
• Castellani, B. (2001). Is pathological gambling really a problem?-You bet!

Presentation

• Aitchison, K. J., Castellani, B., Chapman, C. S., Christensen, D. R., Crawford, S., Currie, C., Downs, C., Euston, D., Forrest, D., Goodyear, B. G., & others. (2014, December). Controversial Topics in Gambling: Alberta Gambling Research Institute's 13th Annual Conference