- Meet the Candidates for 2023 ASA Elections
- Leadership Start Dates for Council and All Committees Aligned
- Apply for Annual Meeting Travel Funds
- When Ethnic Enclaves Meet Urban (Re)Development: The Controversies Surrounding Philadelphia’s Chinatown
- ASA Representatives Share the Value of Partnership with Aligned Organizations
- Thank You to ASA’s Generous Supporters
Meet the Candidates for 2023 ASA Elections
The 2023 ASA elections will open on Tuesday, April 18, and close on Tuesday, May 23, at 5 p.m. Eastern. Ballots will be sent out via email from “[email protected].” Please add this email address to the permitted senders list on your spam filter to ensure timely delivery of your ballot.
In accordance with election policies established by the ASA Council, biographical sketches of the candidates for the 2025 President and Vice President in the ASA elections are listed below. They appear in alphabetical order by office. Click here for a complete list of candidates in the 2023 elections.
Candidates for President-Elect
Nancy López
Present Professional Position: Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology, The University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, NM, 2001-present; Director/co-founder, Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice
Personal Statement: Saludos! Greetings! As a U.S.-born Black Latina, daughter of Dominican immigrants with a second grade education, I grew up in public housing. I graduated from a de facto segregated vocational high school in NYC. I have a record of leadership for action, including: 1.) director/co-founder, Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice; 2.) establishing the “U.S. & Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Power” requirement; 3.) engaging federal agencies on the importance of not flattening the difference between race and ethnicity in OMB standards for civil rights (Federal Registry comment deadline: 4/12/23); 4.) ethnic studies education and health research practice partnership; 5.) intersectionality for student success in STEM at HSIs as communities of practice; 6.) introducing NM legislation collecting parent educational attainment in P-20 for intersectional praxis. I remain committed to advancing ASA’s mission through catalyzing individual/institutional critical reflexivity in academic and community audiences for advancing equity and justice.
Former Professional Positions Held
- Associate Vice President, Division for Equity and Inclusion, UNM, Albuquerque, NM, 2020-Spring 2022
- Assistant Professor, Sociology & Research Associate, Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, MA, 1999-2001
- Adjunct Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Baruch College, La Guardia Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY & Queens, NY, 1993-1997
Education
- PhD, The City University of New York, 1999
- BA, Columbia University, New York, 1991
- HS, Washington Irving High School, 1987
Positions Held at ASA
- Secretary-Treasurer, 2018-2022
- Editorial Board, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2016-2019
- Chair, Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities, 2015-2018
- Member, Nominations Committee, 2015-2016
- Chair, Race, Gender, Class Section, 2014-2015
Offices Held in Other Organizations
- Vice President, Sociologists for Women in Society, 2019-2021
- Co-chair, Local Planning Committee, Critical Race Studies in Education Association, 2017-2018
- Co-chair, Data & Policy for Action Committee, New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council, 2021-2024
- Co-Chair, Education Subcommittee & Data Working Group, New Mexico Governor’s Advisory Racial Justice Council, 2020-2023
- Member, Policies for Action National Advisory Committee, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2020-present
Publications
- Garcia, Nichole M., Nancy López and Veronica Vélez. 2023. QuantCrit: An Antiracist Quantitative Approach to Educational Inquiry. London: Routledge.
- López, Nancy, Edward Vargas, Lisa Cacari-Stone, Melina Juarez and Sonia Bettez. 2018. “What’s Your “Street Race”? Leveraging Multidimensional Measures of Race and Intersectionality for Examining Physical and Mental Health Status Among Latinx.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 4(1):49-66.
- López, Nancy, Christopher Erwin, Melissa Binder and Mario Chavez. 2018. “Making the Invisible Visible: Advancing Quantitative Methods Through Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality for Revealing Complex Race-Gender-Class Inequalities in Higher Education, 1980- 2015,” Race, Ethnicity and Education, 21(2): 180-207.
- López, Nancy. 2013. “Contextualizing Lived Race-Gender and the Racialized-Gendered Social Determinants of Health.” Pp.179-211 in Mapping “Race”: Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research, edited by Laura Gómez and Nancy López. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
- López, Nancy. 2003. Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education. New York: Routledge.
Adia Harvey Wingfield
Present Professional Position: Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Arts & Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, 2015-present
Personal Statement: I am delighted to be a candidate for ASA president! I’ve been a member since 2004 and have gained so much from the organization. As someone firmly committed to public scholarship, my goal if elected would be to help position ASA to offer research-based, empirical insights to policymakers and community organizations wrestling with pressing social issues. Keeping in mind that not all of us are at research-intensive universities, however, another goal would be to enhance the resources and professional development opportunities available to our colleagues at liberal arts and community colleges as well as those in the private sector and teaching at high schools. (I first discovered sociology when I took it as an elective my junior year in high school, so I am a firm believer in early exposure to the discipline.) Sociology deserves a wide reach, and as ASA president I would work to establish this.
Former Professional Positions Held
- Associate Professor of Sociology, Georgia State University, 2012-2015
- Assistant Professor of Sociology, Georgia State University, 2006-2012
- Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hollins University, 2004-2006
Education
- PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 2004
- MA, Johns Hopkins University, 2002
- BA, Spelman College, 1998
Positions Held at ASA
- Founding Member, Sociology Action Network Advisory Board 2018-2020
- Chair, Race, Gender, and Class Section 2015-2016
- Council Member at Large, 2014-2017
Offices Held in Other Organizations
- President, Southern Sociological Society, 2020-2021
- President, Sociologists for Women in Society 2018-2019
- Vice President, Sociologists for Women in Society 2015-2017
- Chair, Publications Committee, Southern Sociological Society, 2016-2018
- Co-Chair, Program Committee, Southern Sociological Society, 2015-2016
Publications
- Wingfield, Adia Harvey and Koji Chavez. 2020. “Getting In, Getting Hired, Getting Sideways Looks: Organizational Hierarchy and Perceptions of Workplace Racial Discrimination.” American Sociological Review 85: 31-57.
- Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2019. Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2013. No More Invisible Man: Race and Gender in Men’s Work. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2010. “Are Some Emotions Marked ‘Whites Only’? Racialized Feeling Rules in Professional Workplaces.” Social Problems 57: 251-268.
- Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2009. “Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Men’s Experiences with Women’s Work.” Gender & Society 23: 5-26.
Candidates for Vice President-Elect
Allison J. Pugh
Present Professional Position: Professor of Sociology and Chair, Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality, University of Virginia, 2017-present
Personal Statement: I am honored to be nominated to be vice president of the ASA, which has so much potential to advance the interests of its members. If elected, my goals would be to deploy resources to advance the position of under-represented populations; to help the ASA stitch together its various communities through enhanced section collaborations; and to promote the extraordinary public relevance of sociology. In my history with ASA, I am most proud of helping, as Culture chair, to organize all ASA sections to donate their reception funds (unused due to COVID) to the Minority Fellowship Program. As VP, my energies would be focused on making ASA work for all of us, across the wide range of research, teaching, applied and practice-based positions that sociologists hold. I also would like ASA to do more to highlight sociological takes on contemporary public issues. We all do better when the discipline does.
Former Professional Positions Held
- USC Berggruen Fellow, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, 2019-2020
- Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 2016-2017
- Assistant to Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 2007-2017
Education
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2006
- MA, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
- AB, Harvard University, 1988
Positions Held in ASA
- Member, ASA Committee on Nominations, 2020-2021
- Chair, Section on Sociology of Culture, 2019-2020
- Chair, Section on Sociology of Sex & Gender, 2015-2016
- Chair, Section on Children and Youth, 2014-2015
- Member (Chair 2013-4), Selection Committee, “Public Understanding of Sociology” Award, 2011-2014
Offices Held in Other Organizations
- Member, Editorial Board, Social Currents, Journal of the Southern Sociological Society (2021-2024)
- Member, Policy Board, Journal of Consumer Research, 2019-2022
- Member, Editorial Board, Sociological Methodology, 2019-2022
- Member, Media Awards Committee, Council on Contemporary Families (2012-2019)
- Member, Editorial Board, Contexts magazine (2010-2017); Culture editor (2014-2015)
Publications
- Pugh, Allison J. Forthcoming. “Connective Labor as Emotional Vocabulary: Inequality, Mutuality and the Politics of Feelings in Care-Work.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
- Pugh, Allison J. 2022. (online first). “Constructing What Counts as Human at Work: Enigma, Emotion and Error in Connective Labor.” American Behavioral Scientist. Special issue on “Automated Labor, Digital Technology, and the New Economy,” edited by Jeremy Schulz and Barry Wellman.
- Pugh, Allison J. 2015. The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Pugh, Allison J. 2013. “What Good Are Interviews for Thinking About Culture? Demystifying Interpretive Analysis.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Vol. 1 Issue 1 (February): 42-68.
- Pugh, Allison J. 2009. Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Vincent Roscigno
Present Professional Position: Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 2011-present
Personal Statement: I am tremendously honored to be nominated for the position of Vice President of the ASA—an organization that is a “big tent,” reflecting those of diverse backgrounds as well as distinct approaches to the “doing” of sociology. This is precisely what makes the field and the work we do so exciting in my view. If elected, I will work hard to ensure that the many faces of our field will find a supportive, nurturing organization with a forward-thinking leadership and open ear. This includes those underrepresented in our ranks, individuals at research- and teaching-intensive institutions, senior and especially junior scholars and graduate students, U.S. and international scholars, and those in academia and applied arenas. Such inclusivity has always been a guiding principle in my personal and academic life and is something that I would carry into all formal and informal responsibilities of the Vice President.
Former Professional Positions Held
- Professor, Ohio State University, 2005-2011
- Associate Professor, Ohio State University, 2001-2005
- Assistant Professor, Ohio State University, 1996-2001
Education
- PhD, North Carolina State University, 1996
- MS, North Carolina State University, 1991
- BA, University of Arizona, 1989
Positions Held at ASA
- Elected Council Member, American Sociological Association, 2019-2022
- Chair, ASA Taskforce on Sociologists of First-Generation and Working Class Backgrounds, 2018-2022
- Program Committee Member, ASA Annual Meeting(s), 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020
- Elected Member of Publications Committee, American Sociological Association, 2012-2015
- Co-Editor, American Sociological Review, 2007-2009
Offices Held in Other Organizations
- Executive Committee Member, Sociological Research Association, 2022-present
- Co-Editor, Social Currents, Journal of the Southern Sociological Society, 2013-2018
- President, Southern Sociological Society, 2010-2011
- Executive Committee, Southern Sociological Society, 2011-2014
- Member, Committee on the Status of Women, Southern Sociological Society, 2001-2004
Publications
- Roscigno, Vincent J., Jill E. Yavorsky and Natasha Quadlin. 2021. “Gendered Dignity at Work.” American Journal of Sociology 127: 285-312.
- Oneya Okuwobi, Deborwah Faulk and Vincent J. Roscigno. 2021. “Diversity Displays & Organizational Messaging: The Case of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Sociology of Race & Ethnicity 7:384-400.
- Roscigno, Vincent J. “Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and the Impact of Workplace Power.” 2019. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. doi: 10.1177/2378023119853894
- Roscigno, Vincent J., Carsten Sauer and Peter Valet. 2018. “Rules, Relations and Work.” American Journal of Sociology 123: 1784-1825.
- Byron, Reginald and Vincent J. Roscigno. 2014. “Relational Power, Legitimation and Pregnancy Discrimination.” Gender & Society 28: 438-462.
Leadership Start Dates for Council and All Committees Aligned
Council recently approved a policy stipulating that, beginning in 2024, all leadership terms will begin September 1 and end August 31 after the specified number of years of service. Currently, some positions begin on January 1 (e.g., Awards Committee), some immediately upon election (e.g., Committee on Committees), and others “on the date announced for the close of the annual Meeting of the association in the year during which they are elected” (e.g., Council).
Aligning start dates solves several problems that emerge from the current mixed approach. First, tying some leadership terms to the start dates of a meeting that vary each year leads to unequal lengths of service. Term dates could also become complicated if the meeting dates change. Having a set date that is separate from the event eliminates the possibility of such confusion. In addition, some of the January 1 committees also have members who sit on those committees by virtue of their roles on Council. That means that the composition of these committees changes twice a year, once in January and once at the end of the Annual Meeting. For better committee continuity, and less complicated committee management, it is preferable that everyone on these committees has the same start and end dates. Further, those committees with start dates immediately after election come into annual processes that are already underway each spring. With a September start date, these committee members will be able to participate fully in annual work cycles that begin in the winter.
People currently in leadership positions will be contacted directly regarding the impact of this transition on their terms. Key implementation points for the transition, approved by ASA Council, include:
- Terms currently set to end on December 31, 2024, will instead end on August 31, 2024, and terms that are set to start on January 1, 2025, will start on September 1, 2024.
- The 2023 Nominating Committee and the Council Members at Large, who create ranked lists of nominees for the Committee on Committees and the Nominating Committee, respectively, will create two sets of nominees to appear on the ballot in the 2024 election—one set with a term of June 2024 to August 2025 (to begin work immediately after election as part of the 2024 committees) and another set with a term of September 2024 to August 2026 (to begin work in fall 2024 as part of the 2025 committees).
- Terms of positions that are tied to the dates of the Annual Meeting and currently set to end on August 13, 2024, will transition to end August 31, 2024, and those newly elected in 2024 will start on September 1, 2024.
- Sections are encouraged to amend their bylaws to adjust term start and end dates to align with the policy being implemented for ASA-wide positions.
For questions regarding the new policy or the transition plan, please contact Mark Fernando, Director of Governance and Administration, at [email protected].
Apply for Annual Meeting Travel Funds
ASA offers an Annual Meeting Travel Fund and the Student Forum Travel Award to help offset some of the costs associated with attending the Annual Meeting for those who would otherwise find it difficult to attend. The deadline to submit applications for both is April 24.
When Ethnic Enclaves Meet Urban (Re)Development: The Controversies Surrounding Philadelphia’s Chinatown
By Ken Chih-Yan Sun, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University; and Joyce Kim, PhD student in Sociology and Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania
The 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association will take place in downtown Philadelphia. ASA participants can easily get to historical landmarks, such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and City Hall. Chinatown is also located within a short walking distance from the conference site. Like other ethnic enclaves in major US cities, Philadelphia’s Chinatown is confronting changes and challenges, such as private developers who contribute to rising rent and the movement of coethnics from urban center to suburban areas. This transformation—and particularly the controversial plan to build a new basketball stadium for the 76ers, Philadelphia’s NBA team, right next to the area—testifies to many core sociological issues regarding immigration, race/ethnicity, community activism, and class inequalities in the contexts of gentrification and urban development.
Philadelphia’s Chinatown is witnessing similar issues that urban ethnic enclaves elsewhere have been experiencing. Many community members and leaders have expressed deep concerns about the proposed new 76ers stadium slated to be built right outside Chinatown. Some are worried about how their businesses might be negatively impacted during the construction period. Some believe that they will lose customers, many of whom might stop coming to Chinatown due to the traffic during basketball season. Some are concerned about possible increases in monthly rent. At the core of this anxiety are uncertainties about how Chinatown’s future might unfold. Many residents and business owners in Chinatown have urged local politicians to step in and address their concerns. They want to be heard and gain control of their own home.
The 76ers arena is not the first time there have been such contentions. Over the past 30 years, residents of Philadelphia’s Chinatown and their supporters have successfully rallied against a federal prison, a casino, and another sports stadium. Indeed, in 2000, community members marched to City Hall to voice the harm that these developers would bring. The new debates about the proposed stadium around Chinatown once again alert us to the restrictions, resources, and regimes that migrant communities negotiate in and through their daily life.
Challenging the Stigma of Chinatowns
Historically, Chinatowns have been stigmatized and exoticized. Some films and television shows highlight the “foreign” dimensions of Chinatown, further portraying it as a dirty and dangerous place where gang activities and crimes prevail. As a low-income ethnic enclave where Chinese migrants of low socioeconomic status are concentrated, Chinatowns have been viewed as the opposite of popularly held ideals of migrant assimilation and incorporation.
Scholars of immigration and Asian/Asian American Studies challenge this oversimplified perspective. They point to the economic, social, and cultural functions that enable Chinatown to protect migrant newcomers. Chinatowns in the US emerge in response to racism and xenophobia against Chinese and Asian migrants. Many Chinese migrants face discrimination and limited upward mobility in the US but have found precious resources such as employment opportunities and emotional support in Chinatown. As sociologist Min Zhou wrote several decades ago, Chinatown “provides migrant Chinese with advantages and opportunities that are not easily accessible in the larger society and helps them to make headway in society without losing ethnic identity and solidarity.” Rather than finding jobs in an English-speaking environment, some immigrants find jobs and/or become small-business owners in Chinatown who mainly serve their coethnics.
More recently, in her ethnography on Boston’s Chinatown, anthropologist Nicole Newendorp identified various forms of support that Chinatown offers to older migrants who have relocated to reunite with their children in the US. Facing linguistic barriers, social isolation, and formidable rental markets in their new society, migrants have found helpful networks, employment opportunities, and affordable housing in Chinatown. For many of them, Chinatown has eased their transition and adaptation to American society.
Of course, Chinatown is no paradise, and working in an ethnic enclave can be exploitative. Many low-income migrants working in Chinatown are underpaid and face precarious working conditions. As newcomers who lack linguistic skills, recognized degrees, and, in some cases, legal status in the US, they have no choice but to endure these challenging conditions in Chinatown. Knowing the struggles of these migrants, some business owners in Chinatown exploit them to their own advantages. Concurrently, shared struggles in Chinatown foster collective resistance. The difficulties that migrant workers confront in Chinatown, coupled with other challenges that Chinese immigrants face in the US (e.g., racial discrimination and cultural alienation), push many of them to take action.
Through sharing experiences with one another, migrants strategize how to better protect themselves. Many decide to unite and establish new organizations that offer educational opportunities, cultural activities, labor protection, child- and eldercare, and legal advice for others working and living within and beyond Chinatown. These ethnic organizations also play a central role in advising migrants on how to seek public benefits at federal, state, and municipal levels and in advocating with policymakers for a stronger safety net for migrants and their families.
Urban (Re)Development Creates Anxiety
Chinatown today faces competition for development, which may disrupt its function as an affordable new immigrant destination. With middle-class migrants settling in suburban areas, many businesses, opportunities, and resources that used to exist in Chinatown have also relocated elsewhere. In addition, new online platforms offer migrants easy access to ethnic food and grocery shopping. As a result, many migrants no longer need to rely on Chinatown for everyday necessities.
The fate of Chinatowns is also intimately tied to the urban (re)development movements in the US Some business owners welcome the opportunities (e.g., new customers) that gentrification brings. However, gentrification often contributes to a steep rise in rent and cost of living. Due to its proximity to other downtown areas also experiencing gentrification, residents in Chinatown may face forced dislocation. Furthermore, as gentrification brings middle-class members to the urban center, many are worried about whether Chinatown will shift its focus from serving current residents to attracting new residents who are able to pay higher prices for housing, business spaces, and amenities.
Such worries and concerns are often exacerbated by migrants’ deeply felt political invisibility. Many residents and entrepreneurs in Chinatown do not believe that outside developers have their best interests at heart. Some are particularly upset that politicians and other policymakers fail to incorporate their voices into urban redevelopment plans. As a result, community members of Chinatowns across the country have been resisting the presence of large commercial developers.
Invitation to Visit Chinatown
If you plan to attend the 2023 ASA Annual Meeting, we invite you to visit Chinatown right next to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. You can enjoy the food, drinks, and shopping there. You can see many organizations committed to serving Chinese migrant newcomers and their families. One is the Folk Arts Cultural-Treasures Charter School, established out of a partnership of community organizations to serve Asian immigrant and refugee students. Teachers there integrate folk arts pedagogy and bilingual education. You might notice the older apartments of the 150-year-old neighborhood, which are home to many recent arrivals. If you are there, we hope you can also pay attention to the bilingual slogans and posters protesting the proposed new 76ers stadium—in fact, they are virtually everywhere and can hardly be missed. This protest points to the centrality of Chinatown in current debates about urban development, further allowing us to view migrants as members of civil society who have much at stake in their country of residence.
Any opinions expressed in the articles in this publication are those of the authors and not the American Sociological Association.
ASA Representatives Share the Value of Partnership with Aligned Organizations
Deisy Del Real, John Laub, and Rogelio Saenz share with us their experiences representing ASA with the International Sociological Association, the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and the American Council of Learned Societies, respectively. Learn about these organizations and the ways in which partnership can be valuable to you and our discipline.
Enriching Sociology Through Global Collaborations
By Deisy Del Real, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California
Learning that I was nominated to represent the American Sociological Association (ASA) as a liaison with the International Sociological Association (ISA) evoked a profound feeling of alignment. ISA convenes representatives of national sociological associations from more than seventy-two countries as part of its Conferences of the Council of National Associations and World Congresses. Representatives gather to collaborate, share their research, and exchange ideas to advance the discipline. You may wonder why this role holds such personal significance.
This role is meaningful because I approach my personal life and research with a global perspective, emphasizing our shared humanity, hardships, and strengths. This international outlook has been a source of fortitude for me and has carried over into my academic pursuits. As a six-year-old, my family and I immigrated from Mexico to the United States, and we spent sixteen years living undocumented while waiting for our legal residency application results. During this trying time, I delved deeply into literature about how other marginalized communities worldwide resisted, coped with, and found meaning amid state-sponsored marginalization and oppression. This exposure at an early age helped me grasp the profound impact international borders can have on individuals’ lives. Therefore, even after becoming a U.S. citizen, I continue to use a similar global lens in my research and courses. My studies aim to investigate how immigration policies, ranging from inclusive to exclusive, are negotiated and how they affect immigrants’ livelihoods, relationships, and well-being across different countries. Additionally, I draw parallels between the experiences of communities in the United States and those of individuals living in other nations in my courses, service, and expert consultancy with governments and organizations.
Building Academic Collaborations on a Global Level
As ASA’s liaison to ISA, I have a unique opportunity to build international academic collaborations and networks while remaining mindful of how the production of sociological knowledge mirrors global inequality. In her Presidential Address at the 2022 ASA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, Dr. Cecilia Menjívar poignantly explained that not all national associations have the same resources to support sociological research, conferences, or academic journals. Further, some academics must work within the constraints of authoritarian regimes that oppress academic freedom. Global inequality in the production of sociological research often translates into the unequal impact of research—scholars in countries with more resources or that write in English, such as those in the United States, can have a more considerable impact than those in non-English-speaking and lower-income countries. Given our more advantageous structural position, as U.S. academics, we must engage and uplift scholarship produced in the Global South.
In my delegate position, I seek to expand collaboration opportunities with scholars in a way that is mindful of global inequality. For example, ISA has special sessions for national associations that are competitive and featured in its World Congress. Most of the seventy-two national association members submit a session proposal. Last year, Menjívar and I submitted a proposal on behalf of ASA, which was one of six sessions accepted. Our session, “The Toolkit of Emerging Autocrats,” will feature studies examining the strategies and tools emerging autocrats deploy to garner and maintain political power, including rewriting constitutions, deploying misinformation, and crafting divisions by instigating racism, nativism, and nationalism. The comparative and global scope of the presentations at ISA will shed light on the various tools, conditions, and mechanisms that allow strongmen to undermine democratic traditions and constrain civil rights. Our session will convene various US scholars and academics from around the world. Their various research projects will compare more than a dozen countries, including Brazil, China, Russia, Egypt, the United States, Nicaragua, Turkey, and Uruguay, among others. After the conference, Menjívar and I will seek to edit a special issue for a journal featuring these studies.
During the 5th ISA Council of National Associations Conference in 2022, I was able to discuss efforts to make research more inclusive with ISA President Sari Hanafi, Vice-President for Research Geoffrey Pleyers, executive committee members, and representatives from various national associations. As part of these conversations, I invited Pleyers to present his research at the University of Southern California. During his visit, Pleyers shared his comparative research on social movements and interacted with faculty and graduate students. He expressed his eagerness to continue collaborating with some of our graduate students, many of whom hail from Latin America and Asia. We have been exploring ways to strengthen connections between ASA and ISA conferences and scholars throughout my tenure as a representative.
A Unique Role
During the ISA World Congresses, I will have the opportunity to present research and receive feedback from sociologists from around the world. Naturally, the assumptions, explanations, and theoretical frameworks I offer in my research will have to withstand global scrutiny. As ASA’s representative, I will participate in decision-making meetings and contribute to critical issues, including the election of new ISA council members, vice presidents, and presidents.
With three years remaining as ASA liaison to ISA, I will continue building international collaborations, networks, and prospects that amplify sociological knowledge from around the globe. My objective is that these endeavors will enrich US sociology, and I urge other ASA members to participate in ISA to work toward this aspiration as well.
Helping Advance Federal Statistics
By John H. Laub, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland-College Park
Since March 2020, I have been the representative of the American Sociological Association (ASA) to the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS) and have also served as a COPAFS board member. The goal of COPAFS is to advance excellence in federal statistics. Founded in 1981, COPAFS “represents researchers, educators, public health professionals, civic groups, and businesses that rely on the quality and accessibility of statistics that can only be collected by the federal government.”
The COPAFS board meets quarterly. The day after each board meeting, COPAFS convenes a large body for its quarterly meeting with stakeholders. These meetings are open to the public and cover a wide range of topics, including updates from the Chief Statistician of the United States and the heads of the thirteen federal statistical agencies: Bureau of Economic Analysis (US Department of Commerce); Bureau of Justice Statistics (US Department of Justice); US Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor); Bureau of Transportation Statistics (US Department of Transportation); US Census Bureau (US Department of Commerce); Economic Research Service (US Department of Agriculture); US Energy Information Administration (US Department of Energy); National Agricultural Statistics Service (US Department of Agriculture); National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education); National Center for Health Statistics (US Department of Health and Human Services); National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (National Science Foundation); Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics (Social Security Administration); and Statistics of Income (US Department of the Treasury). The quarterly meetings provide an opportunity to network and connect data producers with data users.
In addition, COPAFS convenes an annual research and policy conference for the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM). This large gathering provides a forum for experts from around the world to discuss research and policy information on a variety of topics that are especially relevant to federal agencies. Some of the topics include data quality, data linkage, estimation and inference, and privacy and disclosure control.
COPAFS also sets up meetings with members of Congress and their staff on a regular basis to garner budgetary and policy support for the federal statistical agencies. On occasion, COPAFS also organizes webinars, seminars, and workshops on specific topics of interest to the federal statistical community as well as researchers who use federal statistics. For example, a few years ago, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a workshop on tiered data access.
Finally, COPAFS produces a monthly stakeholder report for its members. These reports are valuable in providing information about upcoming events, federal statistical agency releases, and Federal Register notices posted by federal statistical agencies.
Issues Concerning ASA Members
During my time as a COPAFS board member, we discussed several issues of general concern to ASA members. These included data collection challenges and the timely release of reports during the pandemic for federal statistical agencies, protecting the integrity and quality of federal statistics (especially the 2020 U.S. Census), advocating for a new cohort for the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, reviewing the measurement of race and ethnicity in federal statistics, and overseeing the implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2019, also known as the Evidence Act, which requires federal agencies to develop evidence to support policymaking.
As a criminologist, I devoted special attention to the work of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a major provider of data on crime and justice in the United States. Important topics discussed at COPAFS meetings included police use of force, especially lethal force; statistics on gun violence; changes to the Uniform Crime Reporting System collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; prospects for data linkage across federal statistical agencies (e.g., linking data on incarceration and employment, health, etc.); and the importance of data for advancing effective policing.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the COPAFS work going forward. These efforts include:
- Advocating for a strong and robust federal statistical system.
- Encouraging adequate funding for federal statistical agencies, both with respect to staffing and for building a strong data infrastructure.
- Enhancing trust in federal statistics.
- Assessing the future of survey research.
- Facilitating the use of administrative records for research purposes.
I had a particular focus on crime and justice statistics, but other ASA members may focus on federal statistics on health, immigration, housing, employment, and education.
Serving on the COPAFS board offers an important opportunity for ASA to engage with other board members representing various professional organizations including the American Educational Research Association, Mathematica policy research, the Population Association of America, the Population Reference Bureau, NORC, the American Economic Association, and the National Association for Business Economics. COPFAS is made up of smart and interesting people and it was a pleasure to work with and learn from them.
Through the COPFAS quarterly meetings, I was exposed to a broader community of policymakers and researchers, all committed to advancing excellence in federal statistics. My message to ASA members is to get involved in COPAFS. You will not regret it.
Advocating for the Humanities
Rogelio Sáenz, Professor, Department of Demography of the University of Texas-San Antonio
When I learned that ASA Council had nominated me to serve as the ASA delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), I had a vague notion of what ACLS was, but not enough information to make an informed decision. I went to the ACLS website and learned a little bit about the organization that resulted in me accepting the nomination. I am now in my second year of a four-year term as the ASA delegate to the ACLS. In this essay, I provide an overview of ACLS and my experience serving as the ASA delegate to this organization.
My first year as the ASA delegate was pretty much a learning experience. I attended the 2022 ACLS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. It was a fascinating conference addressing key issues impacting higher education, with scholars coming together from a diverse set of disciplines. The conference was quite lively and engaging, and I met delegates from other professional organizations and learned more about ACLS.
A little bit on the history and mission of ACLS is in order. ACLS was established as the world was coming out of World War I. The organization had an international and a national focus involving, respectively, the establishment of an international organization to support the humanities and to strengthen the humanities in the United States at a time when the research enterprise was coming to the forefront in US universities. The early mission of the ACLS was “the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of the humanities and social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of national societies dedicated to those studies.” ASA has deep roots to ACLS, as it is one of the eight founding scholarly societies along with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Antiquarian Society, American Economic Association, American Historical Association, American Philosophical Society, Archaeological Institute of America, and Society for Classical Studies. Today, seventy-nine scholarly associations are part of ACLS.
ACLS’s strategic priorities for 2020–2024 reflect the goals that the organization is pursuing today. Its mission is “the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances understanding of humanity and human endeavors in the past, present, and future, with a view to improving human experience.” The goals for the 2024 period include to: (1) encourage scholars and scholarship responsive to diverse audiences, (2) strengthen relationships, (3) lift the public profile of humanistic knowledge, and (4) empower ourselves to work responsibly and inclusively. The priorities of ACLS are best voiced by ACLS President Joy Connolly who stresses that “at the heart of our mission is our commitment to work toward a more just and inclusive future by supporting a scholarly ethos of curiosity, discovery, understanding, debate, and critique.” She further highlights the essential role that diversity plays in inclusive excellence: “The humanities and social sciences will not thrive unless they reflect the diversity of the experiences they seek to interpret.” Among ACLS’s efforts to address these goals are its Leading Edge Fellowship program and its Emerging Voices Fellowship program, both initiated in 2020.
Opportunities for Sociologists
ACLS is a major organization with a significant endowment of $180 million and an annual budget of $30 million to carry out its mission. In its 2021-2021 funding cycle, ACLS awarded more than $25 million in funding to more than 350 scholars from various humanity fields. There are major opportunities for sociologists to connect with ACLS (see list of fellowship and grant competition and deadlines).
As the ASA delegate, I am part of the ACLS Council, which includes the board of directors and delegates of the seventy-nine member societies. The board of directors is made of twenty persons elected during the ACLS annual meetings. I recently had the pleasure of serving on the 2023 ACLS Nominating Committee for the board of directors. This has been a very rewarding experience, as one gets to see the many diverse experiences that scholars in a wide variety of disciplines have advancing humanities studies from the humanities and social sciences.
I will soon attend the 2023 ACLS annual meeting which features timely and vibrant topics, including sessions concerning open-access book publishing, leading change in academic norms, the legacy and future of HBCUs, along with a conversation between ACLS President Connolly and Shelly Lowe, chair of the National Endowment of Humanities, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delivering the Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture. It is sure to be a very engaging and dynamic conference.
In sum, my service as the ASA delegate to ACLS has been a very rewarding experience, and I have learned quite a bit concerning the humanities in higher education and the ways that the social sciences contribute to the field. I have benefitted immensely from learning about the valuable role that ACLS plays in advocating for the humanities fields and pressing for inclusive excellence through its antiracism and related initiatives. I look forward to my remaining two years as delegate. I also highly recommend that my colleagues make connections with ACLS. I’m pleased that serving as delegate allows me to convey to our membership the value of ASA’s membership in ACLS and the range of resources it can offer to sociologists.
Thank You to ASA’s Generous Supporters
ASA acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, whose financial contributions (July 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022) to the association have strengthened our discipline.
Some of these donations provide unrestricted support to ASA, and others are used specifically for the American Sociological Fund, the Carla B. Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund, or the Community Action Research Initiative. In addition, this list includes both five-year leadership pledge donations and one-time donations for the Campaign for Inclusion. This campaign supports our longstanding Minority Fellowship Program and our Annual Meeting Travel Fund.
If you are interested in making a contribution to support ASA in its mission to serve sociologists in their work, advance sociology as a science and profession, and promote the contributions and use of sociology to society, please click here.
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