wodtke_picture_cropped_2I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. I completed my Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan in 2014, where I also earned my M.A. in statistics in 2011. I am originally from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and as an undergraduate, I studied philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for two years before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and receiving my B.A. in sociology (with a concentration in analysis and research).

My research is in the areas of neighborhood effects and urban poverty, group conflict and racial attitudes, class structure and income inequality, and methods of causal inference in observational research. I’m currently working on several projects dealing with the impact of neighborhood poverty on child development, the link between private business ownership and income inequality, and new methods for handling treatment-induced confounding in longitudinal studies. My previous research on these topics has been published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Social Forces, and Sociological Methodology.

In my spare time, I bicycle, explore the outdoors, and spend time with friends and family. I am also an avid fan and proud co-owner of the Green Bay Packers, one of the only community-owned franchises in major sports.