Sadie Dempsey received a Graduate Student Service Scholarship from the UW-Madison Graduate School! This scholarship recognizes and honors the graduate students who volunteer to take on service roles in addition to their research, work, and family obligations. Sociology grad student Ruby Bafu received this award in 2021.
As a political sociologist, she studies democracy, social movements, and civic life. Sadie is engaged in departmental service to build a more collaborative community within academia. She is also the co-founder of the Qualitative Methods Workshop and the graduate student coordinator for the Wisconsin Center for Ethnographic Research (WISCER). In this space, she runs writing groups, hosts professionalization workshops, and was the lead organizer for the 2022 Chicago Ethnography Conference. She is also on the mentoring committee for incoming graduate students in sociology and serves as a mentor for numerous graduate and undergraduate students throughout the university.
Sadie is also a community-engaged scholar. She is a 2023-24 Mellon Public Humanities Fellow, where she works with the League of Women Voters in Dane County to build a civic education curriculum to make politics more accessible to all Wisconsin residents. She is also working with two undergraduate students to create a workshop on the relationship between art and activism with high school students involved in Leaders Igniting Transformation in Milwaukee. This work will culminate in a community gallery night where students can share their vision for a more just school system with parents, neighbors, principals, school board members, and district administrators.