Susan Olzak
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).
"Dynamics of Collective Action." Dataset including information on over 23,000 protest events that occurred in the United States, 1960-1995.
Latest Publications
Journal Articles & Book Chapters
Forthcoming. “School Shootings, Protests, and the Gun Culture in the U.S.” Social Forces
Olzak, Susan, with Sarah A. Soule, Marion Coddou, and John Muñoz. 2016. "Friends or Foes? How Social Movement Allies Affect the Passage of Legislation in the U. S. Congress”. Mobilization 21(2): 213-230.