University of Wisconsin-Madison
Term: Summer 2026 (Soc 320, Section 078) Status: OPEN Contact: Please contact Tamkinat Rauf at trauf@wisc.edu. It is available for 1-2 credits. Description: This project aims to understand how scientists communicate research and the impact of such communication on how the research is perceived. Our goal is to curate an inventory of social scientific articles …
Term: Summer 2026 – Fall 2026 (Soc 320, Section 278) Status: OPEN Contact: Please contact Molly Clark-Barol at clarkbarol@wisc.edu and include a cover letter and CV. It is available for 2-3 credits. Description: This mixed-methods action research project is in collaboration with a community partner: FREE, a statewide organization of formerly incarcerated women. We will …
The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing Abstract: The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing explores one of the most consequential and contested decision-points in the criminal justice system: whether and how to punish those convicted of crimes. During the current period of political polarization, declining trust in institutions, and concerns about the treatment of immigrants in the United …
The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing Abstract: The devolution of immigration enforcement to local jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies is a defining feature of the contemporary criminal justice–immigration nexus. However, limited empirical work has examined county-level variation in the punishment of non-U.S. citizens. Using detailed case data on the universe of arrests in Texas and California …
Theory, Culture and Society Abstract: As the authoritarian right advances in the United States, developing an accurate understanding of the constituent elements of its worldview is a task of great urgency. Toward this end, I assess the writings of Curtis Yarvin, one of the US right’s most influential intellectuals. Yarvin’s novelty consists in his syncretic …
Sociological Science Abstract: Algorithmic risk scoring tools have been widely incorporated into governmental decision making, yet little is known about how human decision makers interact with machine-generated risk scores at the street level. We examined such human–machine interactions in the child welfare system, a high-stakes setting where caseworkers ascertain whether government interventions in family life …
Demography Abstract: Increasing evidence links exposure to extreme weather events in utero with adverse health outcomes at birth, including lower birth weight. This research, however, often faces data limitations because natural disasters may be localized, often affecting some neighborhoods but not others, whereas outcome data are often available only at higher geographic levels, such as …
Students in the sociology class “Research to Enhance Equity in Education” studied real data from the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). Their research question: Which families are opting not to enroll their children in the Madison school district, and why? The class was featured in the Cap Times article “White students more likely to exit …
The Role of Social Inequality in Parent Engagement: From Inequality to Social Justice in Education Abstract: By summer 2020, some US parents—disproportionately affluent, highly educated, White parents—were calling for schools to reopen, despite the continued threat of Covid-19. We examine the role that parenting logics—and particularly concerted cultivation—may have played in driving these patterns. We …
“But academic research has found that incarcerated immigrants face tougher punishment on average, with sentences that are longer by months or years than nonimmigrants. Michael Light, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, looked at the role of citizenship in both federal and state courts in California and Texas, which, unlike Alabama, keep detailed …