Michael Light
Position title: Professor, Sociology; Chican@/Latin@ Studies
Email: mlight@ssc.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-1217
Address:
8144 Sewell Social Sciences
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- Curriculum vitae

About
My work lies at the intersections of demography, law, and stratification. Incorporating insights from sociology, demography, and criminology, I study the legal and criminological consequences of international migration, the relationship between racial/ethnic stratification and crime, and the health consequences of major social and demographic shifts. Much of my research reflects my training in advanced quantitative methods. To this end, I earned the Quantitative Methods certification from the Penn State Department of Sociology and have published articles utilizing advanced modeling techniques including spatial econometric (GIS) and geographically weighted regression analysis, instrumental variable analysis, and hierarchical linear and non-linear models. My research spans four lines of inquiry, detailed below.
CDE research theme area affiliations
Demography of Inequality; Health and the Life Course.
Selected Publications
Houle, Jason N., and Michael T. Light. “The Harder They Fall? Sex and Race/Ethnic Specific Suicide Rates in the Us Foreclosure Crisis.” Social Science & Medicine 180 (2017): 114-24. PubMed Central ID 6076432.
Light, Michael T., Michael Massoglia, and Ryan D. King. “Citizenship and Punishment: The Salience of National Membership in U.S. Criminal Courts.” American Sociological Review 79, no. 5 (2014): 825-47. NIHMS ID 982811.