Welcome!
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I also serve as the Wisconsin State Lead at the Bridging Divides Initiative based at Princeton University. In this role, I research and support organizations as they confront political violence, extremist mobilization, and threats and harassment against public officials in Wisconsin.
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 Theory and Social Inquiry, 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 