Praxis Circle Contributor W. Bradford Wilcox is the Melville Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, director of the National Marriage Project, a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His research focuses on the ways marriage, children, gender, class, and religion play in the stability and quality of family life. Praxis Circle interviewed Dr. Wilcox because of his expertise on the American family and our interest in the family unit as the fundamental pillar for Western civilization.
As a Jefferson Scholar, Dr. Wilcox received a B.A. in government from the University of Virginia in 1992. He later earned both a M.A. (1997) and Ph.D. (2001) in sociology from Princeton University. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Virginia, he held research fellowships at Princeton University, Yale University, and the Brookings Institution.
Dr. Wilcox is the author and co-author of six books and has written for scientific journals such as The American Sociological Review and The Journal of Marriage and Family, as well as popular outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and National Review. His most recent book, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization (2024) and the topics therein are the primary focus of our Praxis Circle interview. In addition to his research and writing, Dr. Wilcox also consults regularly with companies on fertility and marriage trends in the United States and has testified before Congress on the welfare of the American family.
Dr. Wilcox resides in the Charlottesville, Virginia area where he happily lives out the best of his research with his wife and nine children.
