SADIE DEMPSEY

I earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and am currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University at Buffalo. I am a political sociologist with expertise in social movements, political inequality, and political communication. I employ a range of qualitative methods to address urgent concerns about the health of our democracy across multiple domains. I have published or forthcoming research in Qualitative Sociology, Politics & Society, and RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. 

 

I explore a range of questions about contemporary democracy: How do ordinary people experience democracy? How and why do they participate in democracy? What are threats to democracy and what can we do about them? My research has important implications in times of democratic crisis - when concerns of plummeting trust, declining participation, rampant inequality, and democratic backsliding abound – challenging us to rethink the structure of our political institutions in pursuit of a more just, democratic future.

 

My research has been generously supported by the Russell Sage Foundation. My community-engaged scholarship has been supported through a Mellon Public Humanities Fellowship, the Morgridge Center, and the UW Madison Center for the Humanities.

 

I am engaged in service to build a more collaborative community within academia. I am the co-founder of the Qualitative Methods Workshop at the Wisconsin Center for Ethnographic Research (WISCER) at UW Madison and was the lead organizer for the Chicago Ethnography Conference at UW Madison. I received the inaugural Sociology Graduate Student Service Award and a UW Madison Graduate Student Service Award for this work.