Department of Sociology logo.
February 2021 Highlights
 
  • Remembering Franklin Wilson and Robert Mare
  • Distinguished Advisor Ellen Jacobson Retires
  • Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Mahima Bhattar
  • Welcome, Fabien Accominotti
  • Alumna Alex Hanna Named Brilliant Woman in AI Ethics
  • Grad Students Undertake Pandemic-Related Research Projects
  • Felix Elwert New Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Methods and Research
  • Michal Engelman New WLS director
  • Vilas Associates Awards Go to Monica Grant and Michael Light
Decency. Excellence. Diversity.
Franklin Wilson smiling at the camera.
Robert Mare smiling at the camera.
Remembering Franklin Wilson

It is with great sadness that we share news of Franklin D. Wilson's passing. Franklin taught at the UW from 1973 until 2007, where he was most recently the William H. Sewell-Bascom Emeritus Professor of Sociology. He served as Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies (1984-87), as Chair of the Department of Sociology (1988-91), and as Director of the Center for Demography and Ecology (1994-99). He also served as co-editor (with Charles Camic) of the American Sociological Review (2000-2003), the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association. Wilson was known by all as a generous and affable colleague, with a warm and friendly demeanor and a keen sense of humor. His obituary can be viewed here. A celebration of Franklin's life is being planned for the fall.
Remembering Robert Mare

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert (Rob) D. Mare on Monday, February 1, 2021. Rob was a faculty member in our department for more than 20 years (1977-1998). Rob was an intellectual leader in demography and sociology, making many methodological and substantive contributions across subfields, especially related to residential mobility and segregation, educational assortative mating, family demography, and multigenerational processes. He served as President of the Population Association of America in 2010, and he received numerous awards and honors over his career. He was an exceptional teacher and generous mentor known for his wry sense of humor, and he was beloved as a colleague and friend. A memorial service is being planned.
A collage of photos of Ellen with a vase of flowers, standing next to Tina Hunter and Jim Raymo behind a cake, and with her grandchildren.
Distinguished Advisor Ellen Jacobson Retires

Distinguished advisor Ellen Jacobson officially retired on January 6, 2021. Decades of Sociology students have benefited from Ellen's wisdom, care, and advising. Her formidable intellect has enriched our undergraduate program and the advising community in ways that reverberate across campus. Her wit and warmth made her a wonderful, cherished colleague both in Sociology and throughout the UW, and she will be missed greatly for many years to come. 

Ellen was the second student services professional on campus (and the first in L&S) to have been awarded the Distinguished title prefix for her extensive experience and advanced knowledge and skills.

Ellen, thank you. For everything, from all of us.
Fabien Accominotti smiling at the camera.
Welcome, Fabien Accominotti

Although he is still physically in London, England, January 1, 2021 marked Fabien Accominotti’s official start date at UW-Madison as an Assistant Professor of Sociology.

Fabien’s work, which lies at the intersection of cultural, economic, and historical sociology, explores the formation of status hierarchies and how they fuel inequality in society. Empirically, it focuses on unsettled fields, uncertain markets, and organizations, which Fabien uses to study how we come to view different people as unequally valuable and how this affects their outcomes. He has explored the construction of value beliefs in the art world, the emergence of cultural hierarchy as a dimension of social class in the Gilded Age, and processes of consecration that entrench faith in hierarchies of worthiness. His current project uses experimental designs to show how, in a variety of social settings, the quantification of merit through ratings and scores fuels inequality in the rewards received by the winners and losers of meritocratic contests.
Mahima Bhattar smiling at the camera.
Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Mahima Bhattar
COVID-19 interrupted many internships, but it led undergrad Mahima Bhattar to a unique opportunity with the Applied Population Lab (APL). As a double major in Sociology and Economics, Mahima uses skills learned in each discipline for her internship.

Mahima helps with a public-facing communications campaign "Dear Pandemic" to get reliable COVID-19 information to the general public. While the writing is done by the “Nerdy Girls,” a group of women PhDs and MDs, Mahima has been key to keeping the website running and populating the Spanish translation to its own website. She is also the lead analyst on a project that uses daily new diagnoses of COVID-19 cases to predict the future hospitalization load, and she is a research assistant on a project on John Eason's project studying COVID-19 in Dane County jails, in addition to other research projects.

When Mahima graduates in spring 2021, she plans to find a job or fellowship related to public health and quantitative data analysis, and eventually pursue a PhD.
Alex Hanna smiling at the camera and crossing her arms.
Alumna Alex Hanna Named Brilliant Woman in AI Ethics
Alex Hanna (PhD 2016) is a senior research scientist on Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) team. The Women in AI Ethics project named her to its list of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021. The Graduate School at UW-Madison recently interviewed Alex about her career, how her training in Sociology has contributed to her work success, and about her transition from academia to industry.

Alex will give a Red Talk in April with UW's School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences.
Artist's rendition of the COVID-19 virus.
Grad Students Undertake Research Projects Related to Pandemic

Many grad students have started new research projects related to the COIVD-19 pandemic. These include Lindsay Cannon and Emma Romell, who fielded an original survey to investigate how changes in the gendered division of household labor since the COVID-19 pandemic began are associated with changes in couples’ relationship quality. Annaliese Grant developed an online survey with participants recruited through social media to analyze media use before and during the pandemic. Ariane Ophir and Sarah "Frankie" Frank developed a mixed-methods project, “Dating in the Time of COVID-19” to study dating and intimacy during the pandemic. Read more from CDE.
Felix Elwert New Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Methods and Research

Felix Elwert is the next Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Methods and Research (SMR). SMR is the top-ranked methodology journal in the social sciences by impact factor (4.51 in 2019), putting it ahead of journals such as Econometrica and Psychometrika. SMR is also among the top five sociology journals worldwide, ranking ahead of the American Journal of Sociology.

Elwert succeeds Christopher Winship (Harvard University), who led SMR for an exceptional tenure of 25 years. Elwert will lead SMR to advance all scientific approaches to sociology, including quantitative, qualitative, and survey research methodologies. SMR is published by SAGE and will be housed at the UW's Data Science Institute.
The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study logo, with a black outline of Wisconsin and red silhouettes of people of different ages.
Michal Engelman New WLS Director

Michal Engelman will be the new director of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). The WLS is a long-term study following a random sample of 10,317 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. It is an invaluable resource for studying issues across the life course, including labor market experiences, family relationships, and physical, cognitive, and mental health. Engelman's own work as a demographer and gerontologist examines the dynamics of population aging and the social determinants of health throughout the life course. She is looking forward to work that will build on the WLS’s scientific vitality and enhance its scope as a resource for learning about the multiple factors that influence well-being at older ages and across diverse contexts.
Vilas Associates Awards Go to Monica Grant and Michael Light

Monica Grant and Michael Light both won Vilas Associates Awards for new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance. Monica’s most recent projects have examined the impacts of expanding educational opportunities and climate change on fertility and families in sub-Saharan Africa. Michael's most recent research compares crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas.
This newsletter was created by Erin Skarivoda, Christine Schwartz, Tina Hunter, Eunsil Oh, and Kim Gonzalez.