Welcome!
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research and teaching interests include political sociology, community and urban sociology, qualitative methods, comparative-historical sociology, and race and ethnicity. I have published work at Urban Affairs Review, Politics & Society, and Ageing International.
My dissertation examines how nonpartisan municipal politics has fared in the contemporary moment of intense political polarization. Drawing on innovative methods and data sources, I analyze video recordings of city council meetings, campaign websites, the social media accounts of political organizations and other public records to trace partisan conflict in local politics. Through this I detail the many ways that local politicians resist and exploit political polarization. My research focuses on Wisconsin’s small cities, cities that combine robust nonpartisan institutions with a deeply divided electorate. Here I examine policy fights on topics from local development to election denial, backyard chickens to COVID mitigation.
Other research projects focus on the growing local rural-urban divide, local political parties and the #StopTheSteal movement, the civic engagement of elders in rural Wisconsin, and prison proliferation in rural America.
My teaching, which has been recognized with both departmental and college-wide awards, has focused on social movements, the sociology of race and ethnicity, and introducing students to core sociological concepts.
Benny Witkovsky 