University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jane Ahn has been selected as a Writing-Across-the-Curriculum TA Fellow for her work as a Communication-B instructor, mentoring over 120 new communication assistants in courses from various disciplines across campus. Her breakout session, “Reverse Outlining: Using Section to Scaffold Writing Skills,” provided participants with a valuable tool to help students improve their writing by breaking …
Danielle Schmidt received a 2025 Graduate Student Summer Research Mini-Grant from the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS). She interviewed ranchers in northeastern Montana for her study on agricultural land transitioning to conservation reserves. Danielle writes, “My mixed-methods dissertation project examines the process and implications of agricultural land transitioning to conservation. I draw on interviews …
Bijoyetri Samaddar received a scholarship from the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) for her research into knowledge production in policy-oriented organizations. The next MSS Annual Meeting will be March 26-29, 2026 in St. Louis, MO.
Max Besbris spoke on a National Academies panel entitled “Extreme Weather Events and Insurance: Households, Homeowners, and Risk.” A recording of the event is available to view here. He discussed research published in his book with Anna Rhodes, Soaking the Middle Class: Suburban Inequality and Recovery from Disaster, and the path he took as he …
Alum Youbin Kang (2024) was named one of two co-winners of the Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award from the Comparative Historical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association. She’s currently a Moynihan Postdoctoral Fellow at the City College of New York and a Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow at the New York Public Library. Youbin’s dissertation, “Underground Labor and …
Katherine Jensen and Benny Witkovsky’s article “Human Rights as a Lay Category of Thought,” with co-author Monika Krause, was the featured Socius article in the ASA Journals Newsletter. You can listen to the accompanying podcast about the article on ASA’s website.
Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Chad Alan Goldberg about a proposal for the Wisconsin state legislature to adopt an official definition of antisemitism. “The definition could be a useful tool to determine, if there is a criminal offense, whether there’s an antisemitic element to that offense.”
Morgan Henson received the Gullickson Fellowship from the College of Letters & Science for the second year in a row. His research investigates how the far right in the US and Europe leverages social identities to garner political support. Morgan also serves on several advisory councils and teams that support teaching in the College of …
Jimin Gim received the Student Paper Award from the 2025 International Conference on the Sociology of Korea (I-CSK). She presented her paper “Optimizing Motherhood: How Mothers Understand and Manage Childcare Outsourcing in Contemporary South Korea” at the 2025 I-CSK, hosted by Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.
Congratulations to Sarah “Frankie” Frank for receiving a Distinguished Honors Faculty Award! Each spring, the L&S Honors Program solicits student nominations of faculty members who have had a special impact as instructors of Honors-designated courses, mentors of Honors projects, or as supervisors of Honors research experiences. Frankie was selected from a record number of nominations …