Colloquia
Sociology Department Colloquium Series
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
MONDAYS, 2:00 - 3:30 PM
[unless otherwise noted]
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract: TBD
Allison Pugh is Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research and teaching focus on how powerful economic trends from job insecurity to automation shape the way people forge meaning, dignity and connection. Her fourth book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton 2024) is a study of the standardization of work that relies on relationship, and recently won the 2025 best book award from the American Sociological Association (ASA). It has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Science and named to several “best of 2024” lists. The 2024-5 ASA Vice President, Pugh has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Berggruen Institute, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and a visiting scholar in Germany, France and Australia.
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract: TBD
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Social Science Matrix - SSB Room 820
Abstract: TBD
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract:
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract:
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Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
Abstract:
Education acts on social stratification in multiple ways. Past work emphasizes two generic mechanisms—unequal access to education and heterogenous returns to education across social-origin groups—that can either increase or decrease pre-existing group differences. This talk identifies a new, third, mechanism by which education may affect between-group differences—differential sorting into education within groups. We make three contributions. First, we introduce a non-parametric causal decomposition that cleanly disambiguates all three mechanisms. Second, we develop semi-parametric estimators for all components under standard assumptions. Third, we present empirical applications and show that college graduation plays multiple and nearly countervailing causal roles in intergenerational income mobility, including via the new mechanism. (Joint work with Jen-Chen Chao and Ang Yu.)
Felix Elwert, Ph.D. is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and editor-in-chief of Sociological Methods & Research.