Category: News

Nora Cate Schaeffer’s Presidential Address to the American Association of Public Opinion Research

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Because of changes due to the pandemic, in June 2020 the University of Wisconsin Survey Center’s Faculty Director Nora Cate Schaeffer became the first president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) to give her presidential address from Madison, Wisconsin.  Her address, Far from Ordinary Questions: Task Difficulty, Motivation, and Measurement Practice, urged researchers to consider …

ASA History of Sociology Section Award Honors Chad Goldberg’s Book

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The American Sociological Association’s History of Sociology Section selected “Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought” written by Professor Chad Goldberg to be co-winner of its 2020 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award. Congratulations Chad!

Five-year Renewal Funding for Interdisciplinary Training Program

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The Interdisciplinary Training (ITP) program focuses on three themes for its predoctoral education research scholars: 1) Design and implementation of field-based randomized studies in schools; 2) Statistical analysis of quantitative survey, observational, and assessment data on education, with special attention to questions of causal inference; 3) Translation of research to maximize impact on educational policy …

John Eason Researching Mitigation of Spread of COVID-19 in Dane County Jail

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On June 3 the Dane County Criminal Justice Council announced a new research partnership with John Eason, Associate Professor of Sociology, to determine the impact of jail population reduction on the incidence of COVID-19 in the jail, as well as a projection of COVID-19 infection if the reduction had not occurred.  Eason’s research focus has been …

John Eason Interviewed on How Incarceration is a Public Health Concern

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“Medical News Today” is hosting a series of articles that explore the racial health disparities exposed by COVID-19.  In a recent interview, John Eason discussed  the role that incarceration plays in the uneven effect that COVID-19 is having on Black and Latinx communities.  John’s research has shown that Black and Latinx people are over-represented as …

Research by Pam Oliver on History of Protests against Police Brutality

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Pam Oliver recently provided comment about current and historical protests against police brutality in an interview with Madison’s NBC 15 news.  She is working on a research project analyzing how racism and black protests against police violence have been changing since the 1990s in the United States.  Oliver said, “Was I shocked about what happened …

Jordan Conwell Awarded Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship

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Congratulations to Jordan Conwell, Assistant Professor of Sociology, for being selected to receive a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship!  This competitive program supports 30 early career scholars working in critical areas of education research.  Jordan’s study, “All in the Family: New Perspectives on the Returns to College Quality,” will apply a multigenerational, family perspective to research in …

Katherine DuPre Lumpkin Dissertation of the Year Awards Announced

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Two of our recent Ph.D. graduates have won the Katherine DuPre Lumpkin Dissertation of the Year award. Jinho Kim, now at Korea University, won the award for the academic year of 2017-18. His dissertation is titled “The Social Dynamics of Adolescent Health and Achievement: The Role of Local Hierarchies in the School Context” and was …

Memorial Resolution Published by UW-Madison Faculty to Honor Hal Winsborough

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Hal Winsborough arrived at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1967, where he was an associate professor in the Department of Sociology charged with the creation of a demographic research center. Hal succeeded in securing funding from the National Institutes of Health, and the Center for Demography and Ecology (CDE) was  created. His vision laid the …

2020 Excellence in Teaching Awards

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The Department of Sociology’s 2020 awards for Excellence in Teaching were recently announced.  These awards were unanimously selected by the students, staff, and faculty members of the Departmental Committee for the Evaluation and Improvement of Instruction, after review of both quantitative and qualitative data from teaching evaluations.  The winners are: Griffin Bur – Excellence in …