THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Geoffrey Wodtke is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, member of the Committees on Quantitative Methods and on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization, and Associate Director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago.
His research is in the areas of poverty and child development; class structure, wealth, and income distribution; group conflict and racial attitudes; and methods of causal inference. He is currently working on several projects dealing with the impact of neighborhood poverty on educational achievement, the link between privately held business ownership and growing wealth inequality, and new methods for analyzing causal mediation. His previous work on these topics has been published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Demography, and Sociological Methodology, among other outlets.
Geoff completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Michigan in 2014, where he also earned his M.A. in statistics.
Recent Research / Recent Publications
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., and Xiang Zhou. 2026. Causal Mediation Analysis. Cambridge University Press.
Wodtke, Geoffrey T., Kailey White, and Xiang Zhou. 2026. “Poor Neighborhoods, Bad Schools? A High-dimensional Model of Place-based Disparities in Academic Achievement.” Sociological Science 13:109-153.
Priem, Betsy, Geoffrey T. Wodtke, and Kerry Ard. 2026. “Racial Disparities in Childhood Exposure to Neurotoxic Air Pollution.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 67:26-46.
Schachner, Jared and Geoffrey T. Wodtke. 2023. “Environmental Inequality and Disparities in School Readiness: The Role of Neurotoxic Lead.” Child Development 94:e308-e327.
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.