David Pettinicchio

David Pettinicchio joined the Sociology Department as assistant professor in 2014. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2012, Professor Pettinicchio took a two-year position as sociology postdoctoral fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. At UTM, Professor Pettinicchio currently teaches Measuring the Social World, Quantitative Analysis, and Disability, Politics and Society. He has recently published in Gender and Society, The Sociological Quarterly, Canadian Review of Sociology, and the British Journal of Social Psychology. His book, Politics of Empowerment (Stanford University Press), examines the back-and-forth dynamics between political mobilization and policymaking.

As a political sociologist, Professor Pettinicchio is interested in the development of political constituencies and their ongoing interaction with political institutions. His current work lies at the intersection of inequality and politics. More recently, he has embarked in a nationwide study about how policy responses to COVID-19 have shaped public perceptions about government and policy, as well as the ways in which people with disabilities and chronic health conditions are economically impacted by the pandemic.