This story is part of a series that profiles new faculty members to the College of Letters & Science.
Robert Vargas was born and raised in Chicago, the son of two working-class Mexican immigrants. So when it came to developing his research interests, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s newest assistant professor of sociology turned to his past.
“My parents came from extreme poverty in Mexico and managed to adapt to the United States, put me and my siblings through college, and become homeowners,” he says. “I can remember being very young and seeing cousins of mine do poorly in school or get incarcerated and wondering why my family managed to ‘make it’ while others didn’t. Sociology presented a way to feed my curiosity.”
Vargas studies how local governments manage and regulate social problems afflicting the urban poor. His current book project examines how the Chicago city government has undermined neighborhood efforts to reduce gang violence.
Vargas, who holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, comes to UW-Madison after spending the past two years at Harvard University as a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research.
We caught up with Vargas to chat about the challenges of studying gang violence, his plans to expand his research, and basketball.
Tell us more about your research.
My research demonstrates that reducing gang violence is not just a matter of changing individuals, families, or neighborhoods, but also changing the ways city governments collaborate with the political representatives of violence-plagued neighborhoods.
What is the biggest challenge in studying gang violence?
The dearth of good quality data to answer basic questions, such as what sparks violence or what suppresses it. Social scientists typically use data from police reports, which only scratch the surface and are missing key information such as details on the perpetrator or victim. So the biggest challenge in studying gang violence is coming up with methods or approaches to collecting deeper and richer data.
Why are you most excited to join the faculty at UW-Madison?
I’m excited because the sociology department presents me with a tremendous opportunity to continue growing and exploring my palette of interests and skill sets as a sociologist. The Institute for Poverty Research is also a tremendous resource for my kind of research. In addition, because I know I am incapable of studying the same topic over an entire career, I am excited that the sociology department actively encourages their junior faculty to follow their passions and take on larger and more ambitious projects.
What courses are you teaching?
I am teaching a course on social problems that will cover a variety of topics, from gang violence to climate change, as well as a course on policing the inner city.
If you weren’t in your field or academia, what would you be doing?
If I wasn’t in my field, I’d be an astrophysicist. If I wasn’t in academia, I’d be a political consultant.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I love basketball, both playing it and following the NBA. I was happy to see the Badgers reach the NCAA Final Four last season.