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Spring Highlights
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- Congrats, 2023 Graduates!
- Undergraduate Scholarship Winners
- Day of the Badger Goal Surpassed
- Teaching and Mentoring Award Winners
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- Michal Engelman Delivered Sewell Memorial Lecture
- Award-Winning Demography Research
- Distinguished Research Scientist Carol Roan
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Decency. Excellence. Diversity.
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Congratulations, 2023 Graduates!
Congratulations to our 100 seniors who celebrated their graduation on May 13! UW’s total number of graduates this spring was 8,625, including our summer graduates, who also walk with the May graduates. We wish each of them all the best as they use their Sociology training to make the world a better place!
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Undergraduate Scholarship Winners
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The Sperka Scholarship, which honors the memory of former student Andrea Michelle Sperka, is awarded each year to a junior or senior who has demonstrated a commitment to working on behalf of others. Andrea, an extremely gifted young woman, tragically lost her life in Botswana following a study abroad experience; this fund was established by her parents, Carol and Michael Sperka.
One winner, Mei Lin Morales, like Andrea, is dedicated to service was awarded the scholarship. She has worked as a Diversity Consultant for the Wisconsin School of Business and plans to continue seeking ways to share her DEI knowledge broadly.
The Alfred Reschke Social Science Scholarship supports students with outstanding academic records and demonstrated financial need.
This year’s winners are Ethan Dai and Kelly Wu. Ethan plans to attend law school in order to use his skills to advocate for justice and defend the rights of marginalized and/or underserved people. With a special interest in the sociology of law, Kelly plans to pursue a career as a family law attorney.
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Day of the Badger Goal Surpassed
Our 2023 Day of the Badger campaign was a great success! Our department goal was to raise $5,000, and we raised $14,205 from 71 donors, including 24 new donors, for the Andrea Michelle Sperka Scholarship. Thank you to everyone who participated!
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Teaching and Mentoring Award Winners
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Every year, the Sociology Department's Evaluation and Improvement of Instruction Committee gives out teaching and mentoring awards to the most impactful instructors and mentors. This year's winners are:
TA Award: Daniel Seel
Daniel is a second year grad student who has been receiving high praise from students in his discussion sections since he began TAing last year. They frequently comment on his kindness, his support and openness to revisiting material when students are struggling. One student said, "He is a very fair grader and considerate with deadlines... His section is lively and he clearly knows how to engage with students."
Lecturer Award: Youbin Kang
Youbin is a seventh year grad student. She has taught Sociology of Race & Ethnicity in the U.S., a popular course for undergraduate students. Youbin consistently earned praise from students for her care about their wellbeing and success. One student said, "Youbin was always accessible and always responded to my emails quickly. If we ever had questions, she always would help us in class as well as individually. She went out of her way to email our groups personally with articles she thought would help us with our projects."
Faculty Award: Chaeyoon Lim
Chaeyoon frequently teaches courses that some students expect will be challenging or dry, like Statistics for Sociologists and Sociological Research Methods. Students often comment that they enjoyed learning statistics and methods more than they expected from Chaeyoon. Said one, "Prof. Lim is incredibly knowledgeable about the course material and makes learning it easy and an overall enjoyable experience. His lectures are funny and easy to follow, even if you struggle to keep up he will happily... explain it in a different way." Statistics in particular can be a class about which some students are nervous, and Chaeyoon earns kuddos for making the class approachable to all.
Mentoring Award: Marcy Carlson
Marcy was widely nominated by graduate student mentees, one of whom wrote, "Marcy is unmatched in her advice and guidance on the hidden curriculum of academia broadly....She is incredibly understanding and willing to do what it takes to help students succeed regardless of their situation." Her involvement in NextGenPop, a program designed to introduce population research to students from underrepresented backgrounds and provide them with a path to becoming researchers, is also impressive. The first year of NextGenPop was so successful that the cohort also wrote a letter nominating Marcy for this award, citing
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specific ways that she helped make the experience as impactful as possible, and adding, "Marcy's work is deeply intertwined with mentorship, and will continue to be."
Special Mentoring Award: Tina Hunter
The Sociology Department’s Evaluation and Improvement of Instruction (Teaching Awards) Committee unanimously agreed to award Academic Department Manager Tina Hunter a special 2023 Departmental Citation for Excellence in Mentoring by a member of the administrative staff.
Tina was nominated by graduate student Frankie Frank, who praised Tina for the time and care that she puts into supporting others personally and professionally, as well as leading the improvement of department climate. “Tina's staff have all remained in the Department of Sociology since COVID began and pandemic restrictions have shifted,” Frankie added. “I cannot think of a single other department or business that can make such a claim. This speaks volumes to the ways in which Tina accommodates student, staff, and faculty needs.”
Frankie’s perspective is shared by many others in the department. Erin Skarivoda, for example, wrote: “[Tina] sees the people she works with holistically, not just as employees, but as human beings… She also has a clear understanding of how social and bureaucratic systems affect someone's experiences and outlook on life…. Most importantly, Tina sees the potential in others and helps them see it, too.”
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Michal Engelman Delivered Sewell Memorial Lecture
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When William Sewell became our department chair in 1960, he established a guiding principle of "decency, excellence, and diversity" that we still aim toward today. After he passed away in June 2001, we established a lecture to honor his memory. The inaugural lecture was given in December 2001 by Alejandro Portes. Beginning in 2002, we have usually invited one of our recently tenured faculty members to give the lecture.
This year's Sewell Memorial Lecture was presented by Michal Engelman. Her talk, "On Wisconsin: Surveying People, Places, and their Shifting States" focused on her work with the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), which is a a long-term study of a random sample of 10,317 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. Many researchers, including Michal, use data from the WLS for a wide variety of research projects, and it is considered one of the most extensive and successful studies ever conducted in the social sciences.
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Award-Winning Demography Research
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We were very well represented at the 2023 annual meeting of Population Association of America (PAA) in New Orleans. In total, 66 faculty affiliates, 18 postdoctoral affiliates, and 50 graduate student affiliates from UW Sociology appeared 134 times on the program as authors, discussants, and chairs.
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Distinguished Research Scientist Carol Roan
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Carol Roan, a long-time Research Scientist with the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) has been awarded Distinguished Status. Carol received her PhD from our department in 1994, and has been working with WLS since 2005. This designation is given to a select few individuals every year, based on demonstrated excellence over the course of a career. The process involves an extensive nomination process similar to the tenure process, including multiple external letters of recommendation acknowledging her significant impact over decades. Carol also was selected as a recipient of the 2023 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research. Congratulations, Carol!
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This newsletter was created by Erin Skarivoda and Tina Hunter.
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