Philanthropy and Nonprofit Organizations
Undergrad Class Taught by Pamela Paxton
Department of Liberal Arts Honors

Pam Paxton is the Chair of Sociology and the Linda K. George and John Wilson Professor of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in economics and sociology and her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has consulted for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Academies. She has intersecting research interests in pro-social behavior, politics, gender, and methodology. She is the author of articles and books on social capital, nonprofits, women in politics, and quantitative methodology. Her research has appeared in a variety of journals, including the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. With Melanie Hughes and Tiffany Barnes, she is the co-author of the 2020 book, Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective. She is also an author of Nonrecursive Models: Endogeneity, Reciprocal Relationships, and Feedback Loops (2011). Her chapter, “What Influences Charitable Giving?,” appears in the 2020 publication, The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, third edition. One current project uses mission statements to understand how nonprofits have helped redefine collective representations to be inclusive of diverse sexual and gender identities.