ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Current Positions
Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
Associate Director, Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility
Member, Committee on Quantitative Methods in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences
Member, Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization
Research Associate, Population Research Center, University of Chicago
Faculty Affiliate, Program in Computational Social Science, University of Chicago
Previous Positions
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 2019-2024
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2014-2019
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto, 2016-2019
NICHD Pre-doctoral Trainee, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 2008-2014
Research Specialist, Department of Pop. Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 2007-2008
EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Sociology, 2014
M.A., University of Michigan, Statistics, 2011
B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sociology, 2007
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Social Psychology
Community and Urban Sociology Quantitative Research Methods
BOOKS
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. and Xiang Zhou. Causal Mediation Analysis. Under advance contract with Cambridge University Press.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Schachner, Jared and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2023. “Environmental Inequality and Disparities in School Readiness: The Role of Neurotoxic Lead.” Child Development 94:e308-e327.
Yeh, Catherine and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2023. “The Effects of Head Start on Low-income Mothers.” Socius 9:1:15.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Ugur Yildirim, David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert. 2023. “Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?” American Journal of Sociology 128:1472-1528.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Kerry Ard, Clair Bullock, Kailey White, and Betsy Priem. 2022. “Concentrated Poverty, Ambient Air Pollution, and Child Cognitive Development.” Science Advances 8:1-19.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Sagi Ramaj, and Jared Schachner. 2022. “Toxic Neighborhoods: The Effects of Concentrated Poverty and Environmental Lead Contamination on Early Childhood Development.” Demography 59:1275-1298.
Linden, Ariel, Chuck Huber, and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2021. “A Regression-with-residuals Method for Analyzing Causal Mediation: The RWRMED package.” The Stata Journal 21:559-574.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2020. “Regression-based Adjustment for Time-varying Confounders.” Sociological Methods and Research 49:906-946.
Zhou, Xiang and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2020. “Residual Balancing: A Method of Constructing Weights for Marginal Structural Models.” Political Analysis 28:487-506.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. and Xiang Zhou. 2020. “Effect Decomposition in the Presence of Treatment-induced Confounding: A Regression-with-residuals Approach.” Epidemiology 31:369-375.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Zahide Alaca, and Xiang Zhou. 2020. “Regression-with-residuals Estimation of Marginal Effects: A Method of Adjusting for Treatment-induced Confounders that are also Effect Modifiers.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 183:311-332.
Zhou, Xiang and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2019. “A Regression-with-residuals Method for Estimating Controlled Direct Effects.” Political Analysis 27:360-369.
Zhou, Xiang and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2019. “Income Stratification among Occupational Classes in the United States.” Social Forces 97:945-972.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2018. “The Effects of Education on Beliefs about Racial Inequality.” Social Psychology Quarterly 81:273-294.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. and Daniel Almirall. 2017. “Estimating Moderated Causal Effects with Time-varying Treatments and Time-varying Moderators: Structural Nested Mean Models and Regression-with-residuals.” Sociological Methodology 47:212-245.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. and Matthew Parbst. 2017. “Neighborhoods, Schools, and Academic Achievement: A Formal Mediation Analysis of Contextual Effects on Reading and Mathematics Abilities.” Demography 54:1653-1676.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2017. “Social Relations, Technical Divisions, and Class Stratification in the United States: An Empirical Test of the Death and Decomposition of Class Hypotheses.” Social Forces 95:1479-1508.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2016. “Social Class and Income Inequality in the United States: Ownership, Authority, and the Distribution of Personal Market Income from 1980 to 2010.” American Journal of Sociology 121:1375-1415.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Felix Elwert, and David J. Harding. 2016. “Neighborhood Effect Heterogeneity by Family Income and Developmental Period.” American Journal of Sociology 121:1168-1222.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2016. “Are Smart People Less Racist? Verbal Ability, Anti-black Prejudice, and the Principle-policy Paradox.” Social Problems 63:21-45.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2015. “Continuity and Change in the American Class Structure: Workplace Ownership and Authority Relations from 1972 to 2010.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 42:48-61.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2013. “Duration and Timing of Exposure to Neighborhood Poverty and the Risk of Adolescent Parenthood.” Demography 50:1765-1788.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2012. “The Impact of Education on Intergroup Attitudes: A Multiracial Analysis.” Social Psychology Quarterly 75:80-106.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert. 2011. “Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective: The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation.” American Sociological Review 76:713-736.
López Turley, Ruth N. and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2010. “College Residence and Academic Performance: Who Benefits from Living On-Campus?” Urban Education 45:506-532.
LoConte, Noelle K., Maureen Smith, Dona Alberti, Jeffrey Bozeman, James F. Cleary, Ashley N. Setala, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, George Wilding, and Kyle D. Holen. 2010. “Amongst Eligible Patients, Age and Comorbidity do not Predict for Dose-limiting Toxicity from Phase I Chemotherapy.” Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology 65:775-780.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Under review:
Balgi, Sourabh, Adel Daoud, Jose M. Pena, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, and Jesse Zhou. “Deep Learning with DAGs.” Conditionally accepted at Sociological Methods & Research.
Pernell, Kimberly and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. “The Distribution of Privately Held Business Assets in the United States.” Invited to revise and resubmit at Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.
Priem, Betsy, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, and Kerry Ard. “Racial Disparities in Childhood Exposure to Neurotoxic Air Pollution.”
Working papers (last three years):
Balgi, Sourabh, Adel Daoud, Jose M. Pena, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, and Jesse Zhou. 2024. “Deep Learning with DAGs.” (pdf)
Pernell, Kimberly and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2022. “The Dynamics of Privately Held Business Assets in the United States.” (pdf)
In preparation:
White, Kailey and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. “Poor Neighborhoods, Bad Schools? A High-dimensional Model of Place-based Disparities in Academic Achievement.”
Geoffrey T. Wodtke and Jesse Zhou. “Causal Mediation Analysis with Multiple Mediators: A Simulation Approach.”
SOFTWARE
Zhou, Jesse, Sourabh Balgi, and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2024. “RcGNF: An R Wrapper for Implementing causal-Graphical Normalizing Flows in Python.” https://github.com/cGNF-Dev/RcGNF.
Zhou, Jesse, Sourabh Balgi, and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2023. “cGNF: A Python Module for Implementing causal-Graphical Normalizing Flows.” https://github.com/cGNF-Dev/cGNF.
Linden, Ariel, Chuck Huber, and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2020. “RWRMED: A Stata Module for Conducting Causal Mediation Analysis using Regression-with-residuals.” https://github.com/gtwodtke/rwrmed.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2019. “RBW: A Stata Module for Constructing Residual Balancing Weights for Marginal Structural Models.” https://github.com/gtwodtke/rbw.
OTHER MEDIA
The Inequality Podcast. 2023-present. Hosted by Steven Durlauf, Damon Jones, Ariel Kalil, and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. Produced by the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility. Spotify: https://bit.ly/3qO0KhP; Google: https://bit.ly/3Jp2BjH; Apple: https://bit.ly/3phD0SP; RSS: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-inequality-podcast/.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Deep Learning with DAGs.” Conference on New Methods to Measure Intergenerational Mobility, Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, Chicago, IL, November 2023.
“Poor Neighborhoods, Bad Schools? A High-dimensional Model of Contextual Effects on Academic Achievement.” Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference, Washington, DC, November 2022.
“Concentrated Poverty, Ambient Air Pollution, and Child Cognitive Development.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA, August 2022.
“The Dynamics of Privately Held Business Assets in the United States.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Virtual Session, August 2021.
“Toxic Neighborhoods: The Joint Effects of Concentrated Poverty and Environmental Lead Contamination on Early Childhood Development.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Virtual Session, August 2021.
“Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Virtual Session, August 2020.
“Effect Decomposition in the Presence of Treatment-Induced Confounding: A Regression-With-Residuals Approach.” Population Association of America Annual Conference, Virtual Session, April 2020.
“Regression-based Adjustment for Time-varying Confounders.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Montreal, QC, August 2017.
“Place Matters, but For Whom, When, and Why? Cautionary Insights from Research on Status Attainment.” Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, June 2017.
“Neighborhoods, Schools, and Academic Achievement: A Formal Mediation Analysis of Contextual Effects on Reading and Mathematics Abilities during Adolescence.” Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference, Calgary, AB, May 2016; Population Association of America Annual Conference, Washington, DC, March 2016.
“Social Relations, Technical Divisions, and Class Stratification in the United States: An Empirical Test of the Death and Decomposition of Class Hypotheses.” Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference, Ottawa, ON, June 2015.
“Estimating Heterogeneous Causal Effects with Time-varying Treatments and Time-varying Effect Moderators: Structural Nested Mean Models and Regression-with-residuals.” Population Association of America Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, May 2015.
“Neighborhood Effect Heterogeneity by Family Income and Developmental Period: Evidence from a Structural Nested Mean Model of High School Graduation.” Society for Research on Education Effectiveness Spring Conference, Washington, DC, March 2015.
“Property, Authority, and Income Distribution in America, 1983-2010.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, August 2014.
“Are Smart People Less Racist? Verbal Ability, Anti-black Prejudice, and the Principle-policy Paradox.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference, New York, NY, August 2013.
“Poor Families, Poor Neighborhoods: How Family Poverty Intensifies the Impact of Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation.” Population Association of America Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 2012; American Sociological Association Annual Conference, New York, NY, August 2013.
“Neighborhood Effects on Educational Attainment: Application of the Structural Nested Mean Model and Two-stage Regression-with-residuals Estimator.” Michigan Student Symposium for Interdisciplinary Statistical Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, April 2012.
“Duration and Timing of Exposure to Neighborhood Poverty and the Risk of Adolescent Parenthood.” Population Association of America Annual Conference, Washington, DC, April 2011.
“The Impact of Education on Intergroup Attitudes: A Multiracial Analysis.” Population Association of America Annual Conference, Dallas, TX, April 2010.
“Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective.” American Sociological Association Methodology Section Conference, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, April 2010.
INVITED LECTURES
“Deep Learning with DAGs.” University of Chicago, Political Science Quantitative Methods Workshop, March 2024.
“Concentrated Poverty, Ambient Air Pollution, and Child Cognitive Development.” Rice University, Department of Sociology Colloquium, March 2024; Northwestern University, Department of Sociology Quantitative Methods Workshop, January 2023; University of Chicago, Committee on Education Workshop, October 2022; Harvard University, T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Social Demography Seminar, September 2022.
“Toxic Neighborhoods: The Joint Effects of Concentrated Poverty and Environmental Lead Contamination on Early Childhood Development.” McGill University, Centre on Population Dynamics Seminar, October 2023; Bocconi University, Dondena Seminar, September 2023; Linköping University, Institute for Analytic Sociology Seminar, May 2022; Cornell University, Department of Sociology Colloquium, April 2022; University of Chicago, Center for Spatial Data Science Workshop, April 2022; Sciences Po, OSC Seminar, January 2022; Princeton University, Department of Sociology Colloquium, October 2021; University of Chicago, Environmental Neuroscience Lab Workshop, June 2021; University of Chicago, Committee on Education Workshop, November 2020.
“Poverty, Environmental Inequality, and Academic Achievement.” Chicago Department of Public Health, Health Atlas User Group Workshop, September 2023.
“Structural Mean Models with Application to Causal Inference in the Social Sciences.” Marquette University, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Colloquium, December 2022.
“Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?” The Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Conference on Neighborhoods and Schools, October 2021; University of Chicago, Department of Economics Lifecycle Workshop, March 2020.
“Academic Disparities and Environmental Inequalities.” St. Anselm College, Center for Ethics in Business and Governance, Workshop on Inequality and Politics, August 2021.
“Causal Mediation Analysis in the Presence of Treatment-induced Confounding: A Regression-with-residuals Approach.” University of Chicago, Workshop on Quantitative Methods in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, November 2019.
“Are Neighborhood Effects Mediated by Schools?” Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Data, Equity, and Policy in Education (DEPE) Workshop, December 2018.
“Classes in the 21st Century: Death, Decomposition, or Resurrection?” University of Minnesota, Department of Sociology Seminar Series, April 2018; SciencesPo, Conference on Social Classes in Contemporary Societies, June 2017.
“Regression-based Adjustment for Time-varying Confounders.” University of Toronto, Department of Statistical Sciences Seminar Series, November 2016.
“Does School Poverty Mediate the Effects of Neighborhood Context on Academic Achievement?” Columbia University, Center for Wealth and Inequality Seminar Series, October 2016; Berlin Social Science Center, Contexts of Social Inequality Conference, June 2016.
“Neighborhoods, Schools, and Academic Achievement: A Formal Mediation Analysis of Contextual Effects on Reading and Mathematics Abilities during Adolescence.” Harvard University, Department of Sociology Quantitative Methods Workshop, November 2015.
“Social Class and Income Inequality in the United States.” University of Western Ontario, Department of Sociology Research Colloquium, November 2014.
“Marginal Structural Models of Neighborhood Effects.” University of Michigan, Quantitative Methodology Program Seminar Series, March 2010.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Leo Goodman Award for contributions to sociological methodology, Methodology Section, American Sociological Association, 2020
Reviewer Award, Sociology of Education, American Sociological Association, 2016
Mark Chesler Award for best graduate student paper on intergroup relations, University of Michigan, 2014
Student Paper Award (honorable mention), Community and Urban Sociology Section, American Sociological Association, 2011
Jane Addams Award for best article, Community and Urban Sociology Section, American Sociological Association, 2011
Katherine Luke Award for best graduate student paper, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, 2010
Kathryn London Award, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, 2009
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Research Grant ($300,264), U.S. National Science Foundation, 2020-2023; Project title: “Why Neighborhoods Matter.”
Insight Grant ($87,819), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2018-2022; Project title: “Neighbourhoods, Schools, and Environmental Health Hazards.”
Connaught New Researcher Award ($10,000), University of Toronto, 2015-2017; Project title: “The Effects of Neighbourhood Poverty on Children’s Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioural Development.”
Small Research Grant ($500), Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, 2013
Graduate Research Fellowship, U.S. National Science Foundation, 2010-2013
NICHD Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 2008-2014
TEACHING
University of Chicago
SOSC 16200: Population and Society (W2020-W2023)
SOCI 20292: The Social Psychology of Inequality (S2020-S2024)
SOCI 30005: Statistical Methods of Research II (S2020-S2024)
SOCI 40258: Causal Mediation Analysis (S2024)
SOCI 50130: The Sociology of Poverty (W2023)
University of Toronto
SOC 220: Social Stratification (F2014-F2017)
SOC 252: Intermediate Quantitative Methods (W2018-W2019)
SOC 395: Foundations of Class Analysis (F2014)
SOC 495: The Social Psychology of Inequality (W2015, F2015, W2018)
SOC 6312: Poverty and Income Inequality (W2017, W2019)
SOC 6707: Intermediate Data Analysis (W2016-W2017)
SOC 6708: Causal Inference in the Social Sciences (F2017)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Associate Editor, Journals: American Journal of Sociology, 2019-2022, 2023-present
Editorial Board Member, Journals: Sociological Methodology, 2022-present; Social Problems, 2018-2021; Social Psychology Quarterly, 2018-2021
Council Member, Sections: Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association, 2020-2023
Reviewer, Journals: American Journal of Epidemiology; American Journal of Sociology; American Sociological Review; Antisemitism Studies; British Journal of Sociology; Child Development; Children and Youth Services Review; Demography; European Sociological Review; Evaluation Review; Health and Place; Housing Policy Debate; International Journal of Sociology; Journal of Canadian Studies; Journal of Experimental Psychology; Journal of Urban Health; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Public Opinion Quarterly; Research and Politics; Research in Social Stratification and Mobility; SAGE Open; Science Advances; Social Forces; Social Problems; Social Psychology Quarterly; Social Science & Medicine; Social Science Research; Social Science Review; Sociological Forum; Sociological Methodology; Sociological Methods and Research; Sociological Science; Sociology of Education; Socio-economic Review.
Committee Member, Committees: Research Infrastructure Committee, Social Science Division, University of Chicago, 2023; Clifford C. Clogg Award Committee, Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association, 2022; Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 2021-present; Leo Goodman Award Committee, Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association, 2021; Curriculum Committee, Committee on Quantitative Methods, University of Chicago, 2020-2021; Graduate Admissions Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 2020-2021; Chair Nomination Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 2020; Graduate Admissions Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2018-2019; Stratification, Work, and Markets Comprehensive Exam Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2017-2019; Graduate Program and Curriculum Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2016-2018; Quantitative Methods Comprehensive Exam Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2015-2018; Colloquium Series Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 2016-2018.
Session Chair/Discussant, Conferences: Population Association of America Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 2023; Population Association of America Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 2022; American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Montreal, QC, August 2017; Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference, Calgary, AB, June 2016; Population Association of America Annual Conference, Washington, DC, April 2016; American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, August 2012
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Sociological Association, 2007-present
Population Association of America, 2009-present
Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2016-present
Society for Causal Inference, 2021-present
Canadian Sociological Association, 2014-2019
Last updated 8/30/2024