Reexamining the causes of age patterns in Black-White birth weight disparities: Evidence from U.S. cohorts by Nicholas D. E. Mark (2024)

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Social Science Research Abstract: Black-White disparities in low birth weight (LBW) rise with maternal age. Why? The “weathering hypothesis” holds that the increasing disparity is due to the accumulation of adverse exposures leading to accelerated aging among Black compared to White mothers. Using US birth certificate data covering millions of births to successive cohorts of …

Heather Sauyaq Jean Kwamboka Gordon (MS 2014) receives Arctic Fulbright

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Heather Sauyaq Jean Kwamboka Gordon (MS 2014) is one of twenty outstanding scholars who will engage in collaborative, multi-disciplinary research over the next 18 months as part of the fourth iteration of the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Arctic Initiative, which seeks to advance Arctic nations’ shared interest in building a secure and sustainable Arctic …

Pandemic Housing: The Role of Landlords, Social Networks, and Social Policy in Mitigating Housing Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Max Besbris, Sadie Dempsey, Brian McCabe, and Eva Rosen (2024)

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Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Abstract: This article uses a subsample of low-income American Voices Project respondents who rent their homes to examine how households coped with housing insecurity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, some renters reported more housing stability because of the expansion of existing programs. However, access …

Alum Liz Lefkofsky wins Luminary Award from WFAA

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When Liz Lefkofsky earned her BA in Sociology in 1991, she couldn’t have imagined where she would be today. As President of the Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Liz received the Luminary Award from Wisconsin Alumni Association. This award recognizes alumni who serve as aspirational examples for others through their accomplishments in the areas of leadership, discovery, …

Morgan Henson receives fellowships and joins Teaching & Learning Advisory Council

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Morgan Henson received the 2024-25 UW Center for German and European Studies RA Competition Fellowship and the Gullickson Fellowship through the College of Letters & Science. His current research is about how the far right in the US and Europe leverages social identities to garner political support. Also, Morgan was chosen to join the L&S …

Increased homicide played a key role in driving Black-White disparities in life expectancy among men during the COVID-19 pandemic by Michael Light and Karl Vachuska (2024)

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PLOS ONE Abstract: Disparities in life expectancy between Black and White Americans increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the same period, the US experienced the largest increase in homicide on record. Yet, little research has examined the contribution of homicide to Black-White disparities in longevity in recent years. Using mortality data and population estimates, …

Maria-Fátima Santos joins department as Anna Julia Cooper postdoctoral fellow

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Maria-Fátima Santos has joined our department as an Anna Julia Cooper postdoctoral fellow in the 2024-25 academic year. She will be an Assistant Professor in Fall of 2025. Her work encompasses social theory, political sociology, law, punishment and inequality, race and ethnicity, and work. Welcome, Fátima!

Police’s Attribution of Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System: A Case of Non-Binary Color-Blindness by Jungmyung Kim (2024)

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Ethnic and Racial Studies Abstract: This study critically examines how police officers attribute racial disparities within the US criminal justice system. For this inquiry, the study used in-depth interviews with 65 police officers from 4 police departments in a midwestern county. The findings revealed that 17 of these police officers invoked structural explanations to account …

Lindsay Cannon receives Society of Family Planning Emerging Scholar grant

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Lindsay Cannon was selected to receive a Society of Family Planning Emerging Scholar grant to help fund research for her dissertation, “Abortion restrictions and pregnancy decision-making among people with the capacity for pregnancy with chronic health conditions.” Lindsay is a mixed methods scholar and social demographer interested in understanding how adverse early life experiences, such …

What Is Sociological About Environmental Sociology?: Qualitative Methods in an Era of Rapid Environmental Change by Max Besbris (2024)

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Qualitative Sociology Abstract: This special issue aims to display the breadth and depth of qualitative studies of the environment. In terms of breadth, the work here demonstrates that sociology should have a capacious definition of the environment and treat it with the same scrutiny as other folk concepts. Doing so—with the caveat that individual studies …