UW In The News

College Alone Can’t Save Women

In the fall of 2020, Jessica Calarco encapsulated what so many families were experiencing during the pandemic in a memorable phrase: “Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women. At the time, Calarco, now an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (her promotion to full professor takes effect later this summer), was studying how parents were navigating the pandemic, a project that included two national surveys and hundreds of hours of interviews

Sociologist: Lack of social safety net impacts students

Calarco, who’s previously published A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (2020) and Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School (2018), began researching what became Holding it Together prior to the pandemic, while an associate professor of sociology at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. The pandemic changed the scope of her work somewhat (go figure), and she’s also switched institutions, to the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She agreed to chat about her process and findings, and their implications for student success.

Organic cheese and free lunch for all: what the US can learn from other nations about better school meals

Providing exceptional school meals for millions of US children won’t come without a collective struggle, and our analysis of school food politics around the world reminds us to raise the bar in what we’re fighting for.

-Jennifer Gaddis is an associate professor in civil society and community studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Internships are linked to better employment outcomes for college graduates – but there aren’t enough for students who want them

Are there enough paid internships?No. Only two out of three internships offer compensation for students at four-year colleges. The situation is worse for students at two-year institutions, where 50% of internships are unpaid.

1. Matthew T. Hora

   Associate Professor of Adult and Higher Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

   Hee Song Project Assistant at the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Blue-eyed cicadas, rare and striking, emerge at Illinois arboretum

“It’s still pretty cool if you saw one, but it’s not — get ready — something out of the blue,” said Dan Young, director of the University of Wisconsin’s insect research collection.

White evangelical Christians are some of Israel’s biggest supporters. Why?

Podcast includes segment with Daniel Hummel, a fellow in the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Washington Post said it had the Alito flag story 3 years ago and chose not to publish

Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin, said it was a bad call. And, she added, if she were at the Post she would have argued for the paper to be more forthcoming. While Martha-Ann Alito has the right to her own opinions, a flag like that shouldn’t be on display outside the home of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Culver said. “It’s a flag that flies in the face of the neutrality that the Supreme Court is supposed to be observing,” she said.

Opinion: I’m a millennial mom. Why are you looking at me to fix the birth-rate problem?

“In order to make childbearing seem like an easy option, having more kids an easy option, you’d have to go even further than many of the states that have strong social-safety-net systems,” said Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin and the author of the forthcoming “Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.”

Bird flu, raw milk debate converge

“These claims — I’m a chemist by trade — just make no sense whatsoever on any kind of science or chemistry basis,” University of Wisconsin–Madison food science professor John Lucey told The Hill. “I’ve been doing research on dairy products and milk for 20-plus years,” Lucey added. “In my field, nobody gives credence to these fantastic claims.”

Website offers free, practical advice for caregivers of dementia patients

“It’s a really pragmatic approach that’s put together in a very thoughtful fashion,” said Art Walaszek, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who has been involved in that effort.

Christians support Israel in wartime through visits, donations and volunteering

Christian support for Israel emerged in earnest during the ’60s and ’70s, Daniel Hummel, a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expert on U.S.-Israel relations and American evangelicalism, says. He is also the director for The Lumen Center, in Madison, Wis., which focuses on the study of Christianity and culture.

The Problem With Nudging People to Make a Better Choice

In the end, though, the main takeaway from our research is that nudges may be a great first step. But that’s all they are: a first step. Much of the hard work is what comes next.

-Evan Polman is an associate professor of marketing and Kuechenmeister-Bascom professor in business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sam J. Maglio is a professor of marketing at the University of Toronto.

How China Pulled So Far Ahead on Industrial Policy

“There’s enormous economies of scale by going big as China did,” Gregory Nemet, a professor of public policy at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the global solar industry. When the investments resulted in overcapacity, suppressing the profitability of China’s companies, Beijing was willing to ride out the losses.

Damages From PFAS Lawsuits Could Surpass Asbestos, Industry Lawyers Warn

One challenge facing medical research lies in the sheer number of different PFAS chemicals that have now entered the environment, each of which can have slightly different health effects, said Steph Tai, associate dean at the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and an expert in the use of science in environmental protection and litigation.

9 more dugout canoes found in Lake Mendota; 1 may be 4,500 years old

Milk Containing Bird-Flu Virus Can Sicken Mice, Study Finds

“Don’t drink raw milk — that’s the message,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study.

Avian flu fears collide with raw milk enthusiasm

University of Wisconsin–Madison food science professor John Lucey told The Hill that the avian flu outbreak among cattle is a “serious concern” for public health because of the raw milk risk.

Can Medicare money protect doctors from abortion crimes? It worked before, desegregating hospitals

As Medicare prepared to begin paying for the care of elderly patients in July 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson used the offer of massive federal spending as a tool to finally end the most glaring racial discrimination in hospitals nationwide. It remains “one the most prominent and powerful cases of linking federal funding to other policy goals,” said University of Wisconsin professor Tom Oliver, an expert on health care policy changes.

Column: How ‘Sesame Street’ can prepare kids for climate disasters

Marie-Louise Mares, a professor of communication arts at University of Wisconsin-Madison, feels similarly.

In some states that say they elect judges, governors choose them instead

Column by Bryna Godar and Harry Isaiah Black, staff attorneys with the State Democracy Research Initiative, University of Wisconsin Law School.

Why Gen Z College Students Are Seeking Tech and Finance Jobs

Sara Lazenby, an institutional policy analyst for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that might be why students and their parents were much more focused on professional outcomes than they used to be. “In the past few years,” she said, “I’ve seen a higher level of interest in this first-destination data” — stats on what jobs graduates are getting out of college.

Opinion | The Gender Pay Gap Is a Culture Problem

In an email, Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the author of “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net,” said: I asked 2,000 parents from across the U.S., “Do you think children are better off if their mother is home and doesn’t hold a job, or are children just as well off if their mother works for pay?” Fifty-two percent of dads and 47 percent of moms said it’s better for kids if their moms aren’t working for pay.

Biden campaign ad highlights Obamacare in appeal to independent voters

Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said focusing on health care plays to Biden’s strengths.

With RFK Jr. seeking spot on debate stage, a look at the last independent candidate to make it

Perot was “well received” in the 1992 debates, Tamas told ABC News. But he may have turned off a portion of the electorate who saw him as “not highly scripted or well prepared” on key issues, according to Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.

H5N1 virus can be tracked in retail milk, scientists say

“Whenever you have a regulation, someone will find a way around it,” said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and a professor of large animal internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How community colleges kept students engaged during and after the pandemic

Column by Xueli Wang, professor of higher education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Is Biodegradable Plastic Really a Thing?

“It’s complicated, because biodegradability changes depending on where you’re at and what happens to your plastic,” said George W. Huber, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who works on solutions for plastic waste. “And there are companies who make claims about biodegradable plastic that aren’t backed up.”

It’s Suddenly a Lot Harder to Snag the Lowest Rung on the Washington Ladder

Colleges are also moved by research tying internships to better salaries and job prospects after graduation, said Matthew Hora, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies internships. “The market has been flooded,” he told me.

Sen Durbin mulls reviving tool that could stymie Trump nominees in another term

According to Ryan Owens, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the decision “highlights the uncertainty going into the election and likely Democratic weakness. It’s unclear who will hold the White House in 2025.”

Do You Have No Inner Voice? 1 in 10 Don’t and It’s a Problem

In a new study published in the journal Psychological Science, Nedergård and colleague Gary Lupyan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to investigate whether this lack of inner voice—which the duo have named anendophasia—could affect how people solve problems and retain information.