Department of Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Seminars and Working Groups

Demography Seminar (DemSem)

The Center for Demography and Ecology's weekly seminar, DemSem, offers presentations of substantive work at the forefront of population sciences.

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Demography Training Seminar

The weekly Demography Training Seminar augments affiliates’ professional skills, including those related to research communication, data management, analysis, and visualization, among many others.

A picture of a modern artwork

FemSem

FemSem is a training seminar for those interested in the sociology of gender. Femsem encourages work at the intersections of race, class and gender and frequently speakers and events are co-sponsored with the Race & Ethnicity seminar.

Pedestrians take in a sunset view of partially frozen Lake Mendota

Havens-Wright Center

The Havens-Wright Center for Social Justice is dedicated to promoting critical intellectual reflection and exchange, both within the academy as well as between it and the broader society.

A student studies on a colorful tree-lined Bascom Hill in fall

The Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science & Technology Studies

Holtz Center for Science & Technology Studies promotes innovative work and fosters interdisciplinary research, education and public outreach in humanistic and social studies of science, technology, biomedicine, engineering and the environment.

View of East campus from Lake Mendota

Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP)

IRP researches the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. We bring together social scientists from across research disciplines such as economics, sociology, social work, and demography.

Classroom at Sewell Social Sciences Building

Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences (ITP)

The Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences (ITP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of a network of pre-doctoral training programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Grunewald Ralph teaching in one of his lecture

Qualitative Methods Workshop

The Qualitative Methods Workshop is a weekly training seminar for students and faculty devoted to investigating the social world through firsthand observation, interviews, and other qualitative methods.

Photo of spring tulips growinging in front of the carillon on campus

Politics, Culture, and Society Working Group (PCS)

Politics, Culture, and Society (familiarly known as PCS) is a weekly training seminar of graduate students and faculty in the Sociology Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Race & Ethnicity (R&E)

The Race & Ethnicity (“R&E”) training seminar is a space for students, faculty, and visiting speakers to present and discuss work-in-progress that relates to the sociological study of race and ethnicity.

Classroom at school of education building

Sociology of Economic Change and Development Training Seminar (SECD)

The SECD training seminar meets weekly to present works in progress, generally exploring questions related to global and local change, from economic development, inequality and social movements to transnational economic and political dynamics.

Experimental Methods

This workshop offers a venue for participants to present the design of experimental studies prior to fielding them, and to receive feedback from faculty and graduate students at this critical stage in the development of experimental projects.

Students flow out of lecture hall S429 and walk up the red and white marble terrazzo stairs in the new instructional tower addition to the Chemistry Building at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on April 13, 2022. (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

Wisconsin Historical Analysis Table (WHAT)

The Wisconsin Historical Analysis Table (WHAT) delves into cutting-edge research in comparative-historical social science by inviting external speakers each week. We explore topics such as state formation, revolutions, and economic development.

Aerial view of campus from the Capitol Square on August 18, 1960

Sociology Department Colloquia

Colloquia dates and speakers for spring 2024:

February 28: Mikhail Sokolov, University of Wisconsin-Madison
March 20: Jean Beaman, University of California Santa Barbara
April 3: David Grusky, Stanford University

Ivan Ermakoff, professor of sociology, teaches a Political Sociology class in Sewell Social Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Feb. 17, 2016. Ermakoff is one of twelve 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients.