Bob Freeland has research interests in the areas of organizational theory, economic sociology, and social theory. His research to date has focused on the governance of large corporations and economic theories of the firm. He has published a book, The Struggle for Control of the Modern Corporation, that examines how General Motors’ organization changed in response to governance imperatives during the period from 1924–1960. His current work focuses on the legal definition of the employment relation and its interaction with corporate law; it attempts to show how legal institutions provide a foundation for legitimate authority that becomes embodied in organizational actors.
Chad Alan Goldberg is a professor of sociology affiliated with the Center for German and European Studies, the George L. Mosse/Laurence A. Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, and the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He specializes in comparative-historical and political sociology as well as social theory. His first book, Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmen’s Bureau to Workfare (University of Chicago Press, 2007), won the Outstanding Book Award from the Theory Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and received honorable mention for the Barrington Moore Book Award from the American Sociological Association in 2010. His second book, Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2017), was selected as a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards in the category of Modern Jewish Thought and Experience.
Chaeyoon Lim an associate professor of sociology and current associate chair of the department. His research interests include political and civic participation, religion, public opinion, and social networks. He is currently working (or plan to work) on several projects, including: 1) how experiences in economic domain (especially labor market) spill over to civic and community life? 2) what are the mechanisms that underlie the persistence in civic disparity across local areas? 3) what are social and civic consequences of declining religiosity in the United States? 4) how do micro social interactions in daily life affect people’s sense of belonging and social solidarity?
Pamela Oliver is a Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology. She developed “critical mass” theories of collective action and social movements that stressed the role of organizers, and has written other pieces on social movements theory. She has studied news coverage of protests and other public events. She also studies racial disparities in criminal justice and has written articles on the ethnic-racial dimensions of social movements and on linking theories of repression with theories of crime control. Along with former PCS member Alex Hanna and current PCS member Chaeyoon Lim, she was part of a project to develop MPEDS, and automated system for identifying protests in news sources. She is currently collecting data on Black protests using this system and is collaborating with Hanna and Lim on a methodological paper based on this work.