UW-Madison Department of Sociology

07/02/2026

Jimin Gim was selected as a 2026 Emerging Scholar by 4W Initiative at UW–Madison.

Jimin’s project, "It Takes a Village?: How Immigrant Families Navigate Childcare in a Privatized System," examines how immigrant families navigate deeply privatized childcare in the United States. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations with Korean parents in Wisconsin, it explores how families build and sustain “villages of care” to meet everyday childcare needs, as well as the invisible mental and emotional labor and gendered responsibilities involved.

Jimin Gim is a PhD student in Sociology who studies inequality, work–family dynamics, caregiving and carework. Her research examines how childcare is understood, (de)valued, and distributed across multiple actors. She has also been involved in equity- and care-focused initiatives at UW–Madison, including the Sociology Department’s BIPOC Recruitment and Retention Committee and the UW Ethics of Care Initiative.

The 4W mission is to leverage the strengths of UW-Madison to be a convener and leading voice in education, applied research, and impactful engagement to promote global wellbeing and full participation of women in society. The Emerging Scholar Engagement Grant supports graduate students in any relevant discipline who are engaged in work related to gender and wellbeing.

07/01/2026

After over 30 years of dedicated service to UW, including the past 15+ years in the Sociology Department, Ted is embarking on his next great adventure: retirement. Those who worked alongside him know that his impact was profoundly far-reaching.

Ted is often described as the department’s steady hand, Graduate Advisor Charlotte Frascona states that he is always, "reliable, calm, kind, and funny". To those entering the office, Ted is a fixture; as Professor and Chair Eric Grodsky notes, "He’s the first person you see when you come in if you know where to look, and he may well startle you from behind his counter if you do not."

For Ted, this presence was intentional. Reflecting on his role, he shares: "I wanted to be the bureaucrat you were happy to talk to that day. Always be helpful." This philosophy was born from his own early days in the department. Starting in the Sociology Department in late August 2010, the height of academic chaos, Ted recalls wearing a path in the carpet between his desk and his predecessor’s office. "He never expressed frustration and answered every question," Ted remembers. "I vowed to pay it forward and be that person for others."

One of Ted’s greatest legacies is his willingness to step outside his official role to solve problems. When he heard colleagues mention the "dismal," time-consuming nature of the annual graduate student review, he built a solution. Driven by what Eric Grodsky calls an "inquisitive, motivated, and very, very capable nature”, Ted designed custom apps that transformed the review process and faculty teaching preferences into a "walk in the park." Eric puts it simply: "I cannot go back to before we had those." More than just a creator, Ted remains the hero of these systems, continually managing the databases to keep the department’s data sources running smoothly.

Tina Hunter, Ted’s supervisor for more than a decade, asserts that, “Ted has been a uniquely wonderful colleague. His formidable intellect, dedication to not just his responsibilities but also the improvement of the functions under his purview, and his kind, witty, positive approach to every challenge or opportunity will be sorely missed. We are all better for having known and worked with Ted.”

Ted’s ties to UW–Madison run deep, stretching back to his own time as a student in the 1980s. Even as the campus has evolved, he finds comfort in the places that stay the same. "The Rathskellar has remained surprisingly the same since I was a student," he says. "If I close my eyes, it feels like I am sitting there in the late 1970s."

As Ted trades the Sewell Social Science Building for the freedom of retirement, he leaves behind a department that is significantly more efficient and a lot more colorful.

Ted famously claims he is "never bored," and Eric Grodsky describes him as a true "Renaissance man," busy writing screenplays, reading philosophy, and pursuing interests many of us have yet to discover. Our collective retirement wish for Ted is that he finds it easy to decide which of his many passions to pursue first (chess, genealogy, languages, math, a personal Great Books program, baseball, urban design, and working to counteract the corrosive effects of political polarization on our democracy - just to name a few!), and, as Charlotte Frascona hopes, that we eventually see one of his screenplays winning an Oscar.

Congratulations, Ted! Thank you for paying it forward and using your skills to improve our teaching community.

06/24/2026

Taimur Ahmad received a spot in the inaugural MOTH (more than human life) fellowship at NYU. It's an interdisciplinary cohort focused on scholarship and advocacy around nature and the more-than-human world. Taimur’s research interests include environmental sociology, culture, qualitative methods, and social movements and collective behavior.

06/23/2026

Jessica Calarco’s research focuses on education, families, and health decision-making. Broadly speaking, she is interested in the structures of power and privilege that maintain socioeconomic, racial, and gender inequalities in these settings, as well as the role that qualitative methods can play in uncovering these mechanisms.

Jessica Calarco’s research focuses on education, families, and health decision-making. Broadly speaking, she is interested in the structures of power and privilege that maintain socioeconomic, racial, and gender inequalities in these settings, as well as …

06/11/2026

Ellen Zhang, a sophomore studying sociology and economics at UW-Madison, won the District 8 Common Council election. Her platform advocates for affordable housing, expanding public transit and pedestrian safety and accessibility across Madison.

District 8, which primarily represents the UW-Madison campus, serves as one of the most politically visible seats on the Madison Common Council because of its large student population and its role in issues affecting campus life, housing and city-university conversations.

06/05/2026

Every year, we celebrate three instructors who have gone above and beyond to foster inclusive, challenging, and productive learning environments for our students.

🍎 The recipient of this year’s Student Lecturer Award is Emily Burke (left). Emily was rated “outstanding” in all areas, especially her knack for creating an atmosphere where students felt welcome. Indeed, well over 95% of Emily’s students felt she created a safe space where they could take part. As one student put it, “Emily did a fantastic job in making the lecture feel welcoming and helped alleviate my fear of answering questions.”

🍎 The Teaching Assistant Award went to Yujin “Della" Tao (right). After serving as a teaching assistant for five semesters for Soc 120: Marriage and the Family, Della is now an integral part of this course due to her expertise and organization. Her dedication and detailed comments on assignments, which she provides well before the deadline, have made a significant difference. As one student remarked: “I loved having Della as a TA. Della truly wants all of us to succeed and does a great job of giving specific and helpful feedback.”

🍎 Christine Schwartz (not pictured) was honored with the department’s Faculty Teaching Award. In her long tenure at UW-Madison, Christine’s impact on undergraduate success has been significant; this is especially evident in her role with the Concentration in Analysis and Research (CAR) Program. Renowned for her exceptional organization skills and well-balanced expectations, Christine’s ability to break down difficult topics into more digestible forms makes her a truly exceptional teacher. Whether instructing in the graduate class Demographic Techniques-II or teaching Statistics for Sociologists I, her talent in “assuaging any fear of math” is unsurpassed. One student remarked, “her love of stats made the atmosphere in the class exciting… and she created a positive, non-judgmental learning atmosphere.”

Thank you to all of our teaching award recipients for going above and beyond to give students an exceptional learning experience!

06/02/2026

We’re delighted to share that two members of the Sociology Department received Staff Awards from the College of Letters and Science this year! Charlotte Frascona has received the Graduate Advising Award, and Cabell Gathman received an Academic Staff Teaching Excellence Award.

Charlotte Frascona has ushered grad students through the Ph.D. program with great compassion since 2012. Charlotte has a unique ability to reconcile the sometimes byzantine policies of higher education with a sincere and heartfelt concern for her students.

Cabell Gathman has been a lecturer with our department since 2022; she is also teaches for . Students rave about Cabell’s teaching and regularly report that she’s changed the way that they see the world. Her signature extravagant attire makes her an instantly recognizable campus icon.

04/23/2026

Martin Eiermann studies the politics of personal data and the consequences of becoming visible to—and being managed by—contemporary state institutions of care and social control.

Some of his recent work tracking the intersections of AI and privacy was featured in L&S News. Read the full article at https://ls.wisc.edu/news/the-politics-of-personal-data.

04/17/2026

Thank you to everyone who made a gift during Day of the Badger, with a special thanks to the thirteen folks who gave to the Andrea Michelle Sperka fund! You helped raise $2,598 to support this scholarship for outstanding sociology students and over two million dollars for the University of Wisconsin overall!
Your dedication and material support to the university is more important than ever. Even small actions add up to large results, and we are truly making a difference in the lives of students. Thank you for joining the party to pay it forward!