Our intrepid graduate editor and longtime board member Jacob Otis will be signing off from TSP this winter after several years of outstanding leadership and service. Jake’s vision, enthusiasm, and care for his work and for the project of public sociology has been a driving force in the TSP board throughout these years.
In his public work for our site, Jake has covered topics like restorative justice, intimate partner violence, and social welfare. Behind the scenes, Jake has been faithfully managing all things organizational at TSP – scheduling, editing articles, finding photos, making videos, posting features, organizing holiday parties, leading weekly board meetings, and more. He is also the founding editor of TSP’s own American Journal of Unfinished Sociology =).
Outside of TSP, Jake has published articles in places like Social Work, Qualitative Social Work, and Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. He is also the Director of Restorative Programming at St. Croix Valley Restorative Services, a Research Associate and Trainer at the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, a Sr. UX Researcher at gotoresearch, and a father to four young children.
Jake has successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the School of Social Work and will begin the new year as Dr. Otis. We will miss him here at TSP, but are excited for his next steps!
Check out some highlights from Jake’s tenure with us at TSP – the “best of” Jake Otis – below!
- Social Expectations of Forgiveness (World Suffering, 2025)
- Social Isolation and “Loneliness” of Young Adults (TROT, 2025)
- What Do We Know About Child Tax Credits? (TROT, 2022, 2023, 2025)
- Just a Few Bad Apples? Social Science Research on Police Complaints (TROT, 2022)
- Surging Strikes (TROT, 2022)
- Domestic Violence and the Pandemic Lockdown (Discoveries, 2021)
- Mental Health Co-Response Teams (TROT, 2021)

