Faculty News

  • Michael Bell was named the director of UW-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in 2011.
  • Katherine Curtis continues to maintain an active research, teaching, and outreach agenda. In one of her research projects, Curtis is examining the spatial and temporal dimensions of poverty among US Midwestern counties between 1960 and 2010 in collaboration with UW Statistician Jun Zhu. The focus of the project is to identify differences in the ways that industry and race are linked to poverty. The project is closely tied to Curtis’ programming efforts for UW Extension that address structural trends in poverty. Curtis is also reviving the applied demography course, slated to be taught in the department during the upcoming spring semester.
  • Noah Feinstein spent two weeks in primary schools in Uganda studying the local significance of sustainability education. He plans to use this knowledge in his new undergraduate and graduate courses on Sustainability, Democracy and Education. This year, he will continue his NSF-funded research with Daniel Kleinman and Greg Downey on interdisciplinary science.
  • Gary Green is editing a book on rural development for Edward Elgar Publications this year and continues his research on green jobs.
  • Daniel Kleinman was recently appointed Associate Dean for Social Studies in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School.
  • Jack Kloppenburg is now beginning his third year as the Director of the GreenHouse Residential Learning Community, a residence hall themed to sustainability. Construction has just begun on a new building for GreenHouse. Opening in fall of 2013, the LEED Gold dorm will include a real greenhouse on the fourth floor and a large kitchen in the basement.
  • Laura Senier is starting a major new research project this year. It is a five-year Faculty Development Career Award, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, to study variation in state public health policy, especially around genetic diseases.
  • This spring Randy Stoecker taught the department’s first formal capstone course, where the students partnered with the Southwest Madison Community Organizers (SWMCO) on a project doing research to help them develop a neighborhood center. This fall he will teach the capstone class once more, partnering with a new youth-focused program in southwest Madison. And he continues to be involved with community-based research with The Natural Step Monona and with Community Shares of Wisconsin.
  • Leann Tigges is chairing the department for 2012-2013. She continues her research on ethanol plants and is teaching a new upper level course, 578–Poverty and Place, in addition to her old standbys of 215–Gender and Work in Rural America and 904–Seminar in the Sociology of Gender: Gender and Local Labor Markets.

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