Discordant patterns and adulthood consequences of childhood maltreatment and foster care placement by Martin Eiermann, Garrett Baker, and Christopher J. Wildeman (2025)

Social Forces Abstract: Child maltreatment and foster care placement are common, unequally distributed, and consequential for life-course outcomes. Yet, little is known about how foster care placements vary across children who experience different types and frequencies of maltreatment, and about the adulthood consequences of experiencing specific combinations of maltreatment and foster care placement. In this …

Research spotlight: Ang Yu and Felix Elwert

Research by Ang Yu and Felix Elwert about social inequalities caught the attention of the Institute for Diversity Science, who published a piece focusing on their work. It touches on the roots of inequalities, a “new” driver of inequalities, and causal claims about factors contributing to inequalities.

Perceived Spousal Similarity in Outlook on Life: Implications for Later-Life Well-Being by Yue Qin, Sara Moorman, and Michal Engelman (2025)

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Abstract: Objectives People tend to choose marital partners who are similar to themselves, and spouses become increasingly similar in some respects due to shared life experiences. However, it is unknown whether spousal similarity contributes to the health of married people in later life. This study investigates whether and how …

Soc 320 Research Opportunity, Fall 2025 – Spring 2026: Human Rights Data Lab

Term: Fall 2025 (Soc 320, Section 039) Status: OPEN Contact: Please contact Skye Xollo at xollo@wisc.edu to apply for this position. See details below. It is available for 2-3 credits. Description: The Human Rights Data Lab supports mixed methods, computational research examining the role of activist networks in shaping international human rights policy. This project …

Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends and Variation in Men’s Employment Hours around Childbirth: 1989-2020 by Anita Li (2025)

Demography Abstract: Scholars continue to debate the progress of the gender revolution. Some argue that the gender revolution is stalled, whereas others see an emerging second half marked by men’s increased involvement in the home. Using longitudinally linked monthly data from the 1989–2020 Current Population Survey, I show that U.S. fathers from more recent cohorts …

Does Immigration Enforcement Exacerbate Racial Inequality Under the Law? by Michael Light and Avery Warner (2025)

American Journal of Sociology Abstract: We leverage the rollout of Secure Communities (S-Comm)—the largest effort in US history to integrate local criminal justice authorities into immigration enforcement—to examine whether immigration enforcement exacerbates racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Using detailed case information on all arrests in California and Texas from 2006–12, we test conflicting …

Lisa Youngers selected as one of 50 Women to Watch for on Boards

Lisa Youngers, Vice Chair of our Board of Visitors, has been selected as one of the 50 Women to Watch for on Boards. Lisa earned her B.A. in Sociology and Communication Arts at UW–Madison, and she later earned her J.D. from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Lisa is an expert in telecommunications, and she …

Is There an Idealized Target of Sexual Harassment in the MeToo Era? by Chloe Grace Hart (2025)

Social Problems Abstract: Evidence suggests that Americans became more sympathetic toward people who experienced sexual harassment as the MeToo movement surged. Yet how comprehensive these shifts in public opinion have been remains unclear. I hypothesize that women who experience workplace sexual harassment are judged against the archetype of an idealized target of sexual harassment and …

What’s the TEE: Metrics of temperature Extremes in Europe NUTS Regions (1980-2024) by Sara R. Ronnkvist, Zoé Haskell-Craig, Abbie Robinson, Risto Conte Keivabu, Mathew E. Hauer, Domenico Bovienzo, and Emilio Zagheni (2025)

Scientific Data Abstract: We generate datasets quantifying extreme temperature exposure in Europe using a variety of metrics at two sub-national spatial scales (NUTS 2 and NUTS 3) and three temporal scales (daily, extreme temperature wave, and yearly) from 1980-2024. These datasets capture the breadth of temperature metrics used in epidemiology, demography and environmental literature with …

Graduate Student Summer Fieldwork Awards for James Rosenberg and Michael Zaslavsky

The Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS) has awarded summer fieldwork awards to two Sociology grad students. James Rosenberg is a PhD candidate in sociology and a visiting research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His dissertation investigates how the use of digital technology as a tool of statecraft shapes relations among states, markets, …