Please support the Department of Sociology’s Joann and Joe Elder Fund this Day of the Badger.
Remembering Joe Elder
We are deeply saddened to share that Joe Elder has passed away. Those who knew Joe know what a deep loss this is for our community. As Department Chair Eric Grodsky said, “You’d be hard pressed to find a truer moral compass than Joe and his late wife Joann, nor a pair of humans who lived their values more fully.”
The late Erik Olin Wright called Joe the “moral conscience” of the department. “Joe Elder has always been a model for me of how deep moral concerns for peace and social justice can be fully integrated into academic life,” Wright once said. Joe’s full obituary is here.
The Elder Fund
The Joann and Joe Elder Fund supports undergraduate Sociology majors with community building and belonging while they are students and strengthens our ability to help them prepare for life after graduation. One way the fund does this is through the Undergrad Colloquium, which is a weekly series of casual lectures and discussions that features a different speaker every week.
The faculty, alumni, and staff who lead the colloquium sessions expand students’ understanding of sociology, present the myriad paths available to them after graduation, and give them the best possible chance to succeed in college and beyond. Through this colloquium, students have interacted with Sociology faculty they might not have met before, learned from alumni about what they have chosen to do with their Sociology degrees, and even met therapy dogs during finals week. This colloquium series is an important part of convincing more students to pursue a sociology major and enriching sociology majors’ experiences on campus.
Instructional funding from the college and university cannot be used for these important student opportunities that enrich our students’ experiences and prepare them for life after graduation. In our current economic climate, we rely on donations now more than ever. You have the power to ensure that we can continue to build community among our majors and help our students appreciate the many opportunities available to them during their time at UW and thereafter.
About the Department
The Department of Sociology is a close-knit community of students, faculty, and staff. We teach thousands of students every year about topics like marriage and family, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, research methods, and statistical analysis, all through a sociological lens. We pursue research that is leading many sociological subfields in new and different directions, and public service is one of our key values. In the tradition of William Sewell, we value and promote methodological, social, and cultural diversity; basic human decency to others at all times; and excellence in everything we do.