Susan Olzak

Biography

Susan Olzak is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, where she does research on armed conflict, ethnic violence, collective action, and social movement organizations. Her current research projects include (1) a combined state, national, and international-level project (funded by the Sociology Program at NSF and by the UPS Endowment Fund) analyzing the impact of environmental advocacy group activity on pro-environmental legislation in the U.S. Congress and in the California State Legislature (with Sarah A. Soule); (2) continuing research on the impact of economic, cultural, and political globalization on armed conflict in the contemporary period, (3) examination of temporal and spatial factors influencing the fate of organizations within a variety of social movement sectors, and (4) examination of the role of recent changes in immigration policy on anti-immigrant attacks in five Western European countries (with Ruud Koopmans).

Research Interest

Collective Action/Social Movements, Comparative and Historical Sociology, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity