University of Wisconsin–Madison

Author: nconn2

CDHA Director Michal Engelman has New Role

June 1, 2026 Congratulations to CDHA Director Michal Engelman who was chosen to lead the RISE-THRIVE Collaboration Headquarters (HQ), bringing together experts working at the forefront of research on the healthspan and immunology.  The initiative supports cutting edge research on how the body defends against disease and how to extend the number of years people live healthy lives.

If Not Now, When? Thinking about Childbearing in Ukrainian Cities during Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion

Summary Prior literature on fertility during war examines high-fertility settings using quantitative data on births collected mainly after fighting ends. In contrast, we analyze cognitive processes related to childbearing during wartime in Ukraine, where a full-scale war erupted in the context of long-standing low fertility. We conducted 22 in-depth, semi-structured virtual interviews and three focus …

Obtaining comparable measurement of midlife cognitive functioning from disparate cognitive tasks

Summary: Question: How can we obtain comparable measurement of cognitive functioning for people who took different cognitive tests? Findings: Our method uses the relationship between cognitive functioning and individual characteristics (like high school achievement) to make cognitive scores comparable. Importance: National studies of aging often rely on multiple methods of surveying participants, including face-to-face, phone, …

The Jena 6: Of Nooses, Fights, Narratives, and Movement Building by Pamela Oliver, Chaeyoon Lim, Anna Milewski, and Erin Gaede (2026)

Cambridge University Press Summary Tens of thousands of mostly younger Black people went to rural Louisiana in 2007 to support the Jena 6, Black students who were overcharged after a school fight. We examine the construction of two narratives. The powerful Jena 6 narrative told how the conflict began when nooses were hung on the …

The Enduring Equity Impacts of the Tulsa Race Massacre by Karl Vachuska (2026)

Sociological Focus Abstract The Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States. A prosperous community before the massacre, over 1200 businesses and homes in the predominately Black Greenwood District of Tulsa were destroyed over 2 days in 1921. Systemically covered up and ignored for …

Jimin Gim named Emerging Scholar by the 4W Initiative

Jimin Gim was selected as a 2026 Emerging Scholar by Women & Wellbeing in Wisconsin & the World (4W) at UW–Madison. The 4W mission is to leverage the strengths of UW-Madison to be a convener and leading voice in education, applied research, and impactful engagement to promote global wellbeing and full participation of women in society. The Emerging Scholar …

Housing and consumption: existing tensions and future directions in understanding housing search and selection by Max Besbris (2026)

Research Handbook on the Sociology of Consumption

The Colonial Roots of Catholic Plants by Rebecca Laurent and Emily Burke (2026)

Introduction Whether you walk into a Catholic church out of the balmy U.S. Southwest or a blustering Midwest winter, the “liturgical environment” you’ll step into is remarkably similar. Irrespective of the local landscape, the altar likely dons only a select few plants. Which plants depends not on where the church is located, but when you visit it. If it’s …

The Making of Meritocratic Status Orders by Fabien Accominotti and Michael Sauder (2026)

The Annual Review of Sociology Abstract: This article surveys a growing body of work examining the concrete consequences of implementing meritocracy in social life. To date, this work remains compartmentalized into the separate subfields of cultural sociology, economic sociology, organizational science, and the sociology of education and stratification. We bring these literatures together by arguing …

Municipal water fluoridation, adolescent IQ, and cognition across the life course: Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study by John Robert Warren, Gina Rumore, Kamil Sicinski, Pamela Herd, and Michal Engelman (2026)

Abstract We investigate associations between community water fluoridation (CWF), adolescent IQ, and cognition across the life course using representative data from the US state of Wisconsin. Exposure is inferred from historical records on community water fluoridation; adolescent IQ is ascertained from state testing records; and cognition in later life is assessed as part of the …