Colloquia

Sociology Department Colloquium Series
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
MONDAYS, 2:00 - 3:30 PM
[unless otherwise noted]

Felix Elwert, "Three Paths to Equality: The Roles of Education in Social Stratification"

February 9, 2026 - 2:00 pm - February 9, 2026 - 3:30 pm

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.

Alex Diamond, "Governing the Excluded"

February 2, 2026 - 2:00 pm - February 2, 2026 - 3:30 pm

Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building

Abstract: The Colombian village of Briceño might, at first glimpse, look like many communities in therural Global South. Many of the people living there rely on small-scale farming, even as pricesand profits are increasingly squeezed by free trade and corporate agriculture. Yet after decadeswhere Briceño suffered from a bloody conflict, the village has more recently become central tothe nation’s hopes for peace. In Governing the Excluded (University of Chicago Press, 2026),sociologist Alex Diamond shares a closer look at Briceño and offers unique insight into how thestruggles of people across the Global South to maintain rural livelihoods amid economicdispossession affect struggles over local authority.