Section Sessions

Section Sessions are planned by the ASA Sections. Section sessions are open to all paper/extended abstract submissions that meet the submission criteria.

Community and Urban Sociology Section

Climate Change, Urban Inequality, and the Future of Cities   

This panel considers the impact of climate change on shaping urban inequalities worldwide. We invite submissions that explore how climate change affects and is affected by the economic, political, and spatial conditions of contemporary cities. Topics include (but are not limited to) the effects of climate change on shaping contemporary “housing crises” (i.e., housing affordability, housing and rental shortages, residential displacement, food deserts, and infrastructural failures), how urbanization contributes to global warming and exacerbates environmental disasters, and the impacts of climate change on migration and residential displacement. We also welcome submissions investigating the various strategies to combat climate change and bolster the resilience of cities. We especially encourage submissions that focus on contexts outside the Global North, deploy intersectional and antiracist approaches, and center on the agency of marginalized populations.

Session Organizer: Candace Nicole Miller, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

Session Organizer: Benjamin Bradlow, Princeton University

Critical Approaches to the Study of Policing of Urban Spaces 

This panel centers critical frameworks on the study of policing and the criminal legal system in the wake of both COVID and the racial reckoning initiated by #blacklivesmatter. We invite papers offering new approaches that nuance our understanding of crime, law enforcement and police reform, and community policing. We especially encourage submissions that focus on contexts outside the Global North, deploy intersectional and antiracist approaches, and center on the agency of marginalized populations.

Session Organizer: Kesha S. Moore, Thurgood Marshall Institute

Session Organizer: Tony Cheng, University of California, Irvine

Education and Urban Inequality  

This panel explores how urban education shapes and is shaped by urban inequality. We invite papers that explore the intersections between school-based inequality and residential segregation, zoning and how it overlaps with urban neighborhoods, education and its relationship to housing markets, and the role of educational institutions in economically transforming urban areas. We especially encourage submissions that focus on contexts outside the Global North, deploy intersectional and antiracist approaches, and center on the agency of marginalized populations.

Session Organizer: Elizabeth Ackert, University of California-Santa Barbara

Session Organizer: Elly Field, University of Michigan

Reimagining Urban and Community Sociology through Data Science   

This panel investigates how scholars use data science to answer critical questions related to urban and community sociology. We invite papers that consider data-driven approaches to studying a wide range of topics related to cities and urban populations, including, but not limited to, machine learning and artificial intelligence, data mining, and data visualization. We especially encourage submissions that focus on contexts outside the Global North, deploy intersectional and antiracist approaches, and that center on the agency of marginalized populations.

Session Organizer: Mahesh Somashekhar, University of Illinois-Chicago

Session Organizer: Ian Kennedy, Rice University

Community and Urban Sociology Section Refereed Roundtables  

Session Organizer: Leonard Nevarez, Vassar College

Family Section

Families, Health, and Well-being 

This session is sponsored by the Family Section. Its goal is to highlight new research on the intersection between families and health, including but not limited to: inequalities in family well-being broadly defined, how families influence individual health and well-being, how health of family members affects other family members.

Session Organizer: Mariana Amorim, Washington State University

Session Organizer: Patricia Drentea, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Families, the State, and Social Policy    

This session is sponsored by the Family Section. Its goal is to highlight new research on how the state controls or/and supports families through various policies and services with special attention to variation in such influences across social groups.

Session Organizer: Jennifer Bouek, University of Delaware

Session Organizer: Kevin Shafer, Brigham Young University-Provo

Family Relationships Beyond the Households   

This session is jointly sponsored by the Family Section and the Sociology of Population Section. Its goal is to highlight new research on family relationships among those who may not be regularly living in the same households to better understand the complexity and richness of family connections.

Session Organizer: Cassandra Cotton, Arizona State University-Tempe

Session Organizer: Christine M. Percheski, Northwestern University

Race/Ethnicity and Families   

This session is jointly sponsored by the Family Section and the Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section. Its goal is to highlight research that investigates how racial/ethnic stratification affects families and intimate relationships.

Session Organizer: Sarah Adeyinka-Skold, Furman University

Session Organizer: Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Florida State University

Family Section Roundtables  

The Family Section Roundtable session invites various family research topics. Accepted submissions will be organized into thematic areas for individual roundtables with a small number of participants. Each table will have a presider. Roundtables typically help facilitate meaningful conversations among participants.

Session Organizer: Mahala Dyer Stewart, Hamilton College

Session Organizer: Jenjira Yahirun, Bowling Green State University

Section on Aging and the Life Course

Aging and Structural Inequalities 

For this session, we welcome submissions from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives that explore structural inequalities in the context of aging. A variety of types of structural inequalities are of potential interest in this session.

Session Organizer: Patricia Homan, Florida State University

Intersectionality and the Life Course  

For this session, we welcome submissions from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives that integrate intersectionality into studies of the life course.

Session Organizer: Jenjira Yahirun, Bowling Green State University

Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables and Research Working Groups

There will be two SALC roundtable options for ASA 2023.

First, SALC will offer standard roundtable sessions, as we have in previous years. Those interested in submitting a paper to a standard roundtable session are welcome to do so through the ASA portal.

Second, SALC will accept submissions for research working group roundtables, a return to the informal working groups of previous years. For example, scholars working on retirement would organize a roundtable to discuss their own work, new developments in the area, ongoing and planned research projects with colleagues, research design, methods or new data. Participants in these groups can be listed on the program, like any other roundtable participants, as long as we receive names by the February 2022 ASA submission deadline.

Participation in these groups is open to anyone who is interested, whether listed on the program or not.

To apply for a research working group roundtable:

1. an organizer must submit via the ASA portal by the February 2023 deadline for submitting paper abstracts to ASA,

2. the organizer must include a brief description (one paragraph) of the topic,

3. the organizer may submit names of any participants who wish to be listed in the program, but this is both optional and need not be complete.”

Session Organizer: Marc Anthony Garcia, Syracuse University

Session Organizer: Emma Zang, Yale University

Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity

Interrogating Solidarity, Justice, and Inequality

This session focuses on the intersections of solidarity, justice, and inequality, both in sociological theory and in empirical research. How can scholarship on solidarity take into account power, resources, and justice? Do studies of altruism, morality, and solidarity engage adequately with critical theories? How does a focus on solidarity also encompass questions of contestation and justice?

Session Organizer: Corey M. Abramson, University of Arizona

Section on Animals and Society

Animals & Society Open Paper Session 

An open paper session for research, projects, and/or papers addressing animals and society.

Session Organizer: Carol L. Glasser, Minnesota State University-Mankato

Animals & Society Roundtable

A roundtable session for research, projects, and/or papers addressing animals and society.

Session Organizer: Carol L. Glasser, Minnesota State University-Mankato

Section on Asia and Asian America

Section on Asia and Asian America Paper Sessions   

We invite all papers relevant for Section on Asia and Asian America; papers on Asia, papers on Asian America, and papers on connections between Asia and Asian America. This centralized pool of submission will result in 3 90-min paper sessions.

Session Organizer: Bin Xu, Emory University

Session Organizer: Jennifer Huynh, University of Notre Dame

Session Organizer: Hyeyoung Woo, Portland State University

Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables    

We welcome scholars working on Asia and/or Asian America to present their work in a roundtable format. This session is open to all topics concerning Asia and Asian America, and accepted submissions will be organized into multiple roundtables based on shared themes.

Session Organizer: Feinian Chen, Johns Hopkins University

Section on Children and Youth

Children’s Geographies: Place and Space Matterings  

Child and youth geographies are intricately woven into the fabric of the sociology of childhood. For this panel, we invite submissions that consider the “where” of children and youth as they traverse across the institutional triangle of home, school, and playground while negotiating relationships with families, teachers, and peers. We also encourage submissions that go beyond these places and spaces; for example, emplacement in cities and towns, virtual spaces of the internet, representations in media and literature, etc.

Session Organizer: Ingrid E. Castro, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

(Dis)Abilities in Childhood  

Although disabilities shape childhoods in meaningful ways, definitions of childhood disability are varied and often ambiguous. Questions, too, remain about how disability intersects with other identities and institutions such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status, among others. For this session, we encourage submissions that investigate definitions and conceptualizations of disabilities in childhood, implications of experiencing disability during childhood, and institutional reactions to children who have disabilities.

Session Organizer: Ashley Larsen Gibby, Brigham Young University-Provo

Section on Children and Youth Roundtables   

The section is accepting submissions on the topic of Children and Youth.

Session Organizer: Holly Foster, Texas A&M University-College Station

Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements

Mobilizing Across Difference  

Most movements seek to build the broadest base of adherents possible. Doing so means mobilizing people across difference, broadly conceived. Whether through efforts to organize differently situated workers to contest labor precarity, or to unite differently situated peoples around a shared horizon of the climate crisis, to name just two examples, many efforts of the twenty-first century are approaching building solidarity across social difference in new and interesting ways.

This panel seeks to build on the educative strengths of sociology in its potential to bring a “diversity of people, epistemic frameworks, ideas, and methods” to bear on the study of new models of solidarity, alliance and coalition building in social movements. What might sociology illuminate regarding how movements navigate questions of difference among their ranks, and how this shapes key dynamics, such as strategy and tactics, framing, identity work, and ultimate outcomes, for instance? In turn, how might the efforts of movements to work across social difference of various kinds offer important lessons to the discipline of sociology? This panel welcomes papers that offer insights into how movement efforts seek to draw differently situated social actors together, and what the promises and pitfalls of such approaches might be. Papers may be empirical or theoretical in nature and may explore developments in different historical eras, but especially as they might shed light on the contemporary moment and the exigencies of sociology.

Session Organizer: Chandra Russo, Colgate University

Open paper session on Collective Behavior and Social Movements 

This session will present innovative papers dealing with the theorizing, study or analysis of collective behavior and/or social movements.

Session Organizer: Taura Taylor, Morehouse College

Session Organizer: Amaka Camille Okechukwu, George Mason University

Violence and Activism: Past, Present, and Future  

Violence and activism are intertwined in many ways. This session explores relationships between violence and activism, including: 1) social movements working to prevent violence, such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo; 2) the challenges of mobilizing in violent contexts, such as in zones of militarized policing and political repression; and 3) debates around using violence, such as rioting, as a way to try to achieve social change. The topics of this session could include, but are not limited to: activist movements working to stop violence against people of color, women, LGBT people, the elderly, children, and/or people with disabilities; activism in areas of armed conflict and mobilization against violent and/or authoritarian regimes; and violent forms of activism including violent protests and attempts at regime change. Presentations can be about the past, present, and/or future of these forms of activism, and can include both empirical and theoretical contributions that expand our understanding of the relationship between activism and violence.

Session Organizer: Anjuli Fahlberg, Tufts University

Session Organizer: Laurel Westbrook, Grand Valley State University

Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables 

The Collective Behavior and Social Movements roundtable session brings sociologists across sub-disciplines together to better understand the dynamics of and phenomena associated with collective engagement and social movements.

Session Organizer: Kyle Rose, Florida State University

Section on Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology

Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Open Panel  

This session is open to paper submissions for any work related to the themes of the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section. This is an opportunity to highlight cutting edge work in the field, or to revisit classic themes. Thanks to a special relationship between the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section and the journal Information, Communication & Society (ICS), all papers with a theme of information, communication, or media that are presented at the 2023 meetings of the ASA are eligible for submission to a special issue of ICS edited by the CITAMS chair each fall. CITAMS is committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Dustin Kidd, Temple University

Session Organizer: Timothy Recuber, Smith College

Miscommunication, Disinformation Technologies, and Bad Media    

Lies and manipulation are frequent topics of public discourse, regarding a range of topics from politics and public policies to jobs and consumerism. The tools of these lies are often the very technologies that are central to the CITAMS section. This is an opportunity to explore the dark corners of information technology, communication, and the media. Thanks to a special relationship between the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section and the journal Information, Communication & Society (ICS), all papers with a theme of information, communication, or media that are presented at the 2023 meetings of the ASA are eligible for submission to a special issue of ICS edited by the CITAMS chair each fall. CITAMS is committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Dustin Kidd, Temple University

Session Organizer: Gina Marie Longo, Virginia Commonwealth University

Technologies of Disability Representation     

Communication technologies are the primary method of representation in the narratives and images of modern life. These technologies include mass media, social media, smart phones, and much more. This session is focused on disability media studies through an intersectional lens. It highlights the important role of both media studies and disability studies in the study of communications and information technology. Papers for this open panel might include quantitative studies of unequal representations, qualitative studies of key themes in representation, case studies of particular models of representation, and theoretical analyses that help to explain or contextualize representations of disability and its intersections with one or more of the following: race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, nationality, region, class, etc. Papers might focus on television, film, social media platforms, smart phone applications, novels and other text-based communication, YouTube, search engines, and assistive or adaptive technologies. This session is co-sponsored by the Disability in Society section of ASA. Thanks to a special relationship between the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section and the journal Information, Communication & Society (ICS), all papers with a theme of information, communication, or media that are presented at the 2023 meetings of the ASA are eligible for submission to a special issue of ICS edited by the CITAMS chair each fall. CITAMS is committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Dustin Kidd, Temple University

Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Open-Refereed Roundtables 

This session is open to paper submissions for any work related to the themes of the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section. This is an opportunity to highlight cutting edge work in the field, or to revisit classic themes. Papers will be grouped into themes once submissions are received. Thanks to a special relationship between the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section and the journal Information, Communications & Society (ICS), all papers with a theme of information, communication, or media that are presented at the 2023 meetings of the ASA are eligible for submission to a special issue of ICS edited by the CITAMS chair each fall. CITAMS is committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Dustin Kidd, Temple University

Session Organizer: Timothy Recuber, Smith College

Session Organizer: Jenny L. Davis, The Australian National University

Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology

Comparative and/or Historical Sociology: Open Session

Session Organizer: Atef S. Said, University of Illinois at Chicago

Session Organizer: Eric W. Schoon, Ohio State University

The State and Racial Capitalism (joint session with Section on Political Sociology)      

Though coined by Cedrick Robinson in his book Black Marxism: The Making of a Black Radical Tradition, racial capitalism as a concept has a distinct lineage that connects thinkers like Eric Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Oliver Cromwell Cox, Angela Davis, and Walter Rodney among many others. Work in this tradition has highlighted the enduring centrality of racism and race-making to the logics of capitalism, thought and the modern world entire. Through these lenses we can understand the central roles that slavery, colonialism and racial subjugation have played in the making of modernity and one of its most quintessential formations-the state.  Drawing from practices in comparative historical sociology, this panel seeks to interrogate relations between racial capitalism and the state. This session invites papers considering the state and racial capitalism from global, transnational, and historical perspectives. This panel is cosponsored by the Political Sociology section.

Session Organizer: Alexandre White, Johns Hopkins University

Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Roundtables     

We welcome submissions on topics of comparative and/or historical sociology, broadly defined.

Session Organizer: Jack Jin Gary Lee, New School For Social Research

Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance

Abolition, Social Movements, and Criminal System Transformation from an Empirical Perspective 

This panel will focus on empirical work within the realm of abolition, social movements, and criminal system transformation.

Session Organizer: Monica C. Bell, Yale University

Immigration, Crime, and the Criminalization of Immigration  

This panel will highlight recent empirical research examining the intersections of immigration, immigrant communities, crime, and public safety from diverse methodological approaches and across geographic contexts. Attention will also be given to the criminalization of immigration as well as the consequences of the federal government’s recent efforts to impede access to the asylum system.

Session Organizer: Daniel E. Martinez, University of Arizona

Schools, Crime, and Social Control   

This panel will focus on recent research examining the nature and extent, causes and consequences, and proposed remedies to widely recognized forms of school crime, social control, increasing presence of law enforcement, and criminalization.

Session Organizer: Anthony A. Peguero, Arizona State University

Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables   

Session Organizer: April D. Fernandes, North Carolina State University

Session Organizer: Chris M. Smith, University of Toronto

Section on Disability in Society

Technologies of Disability Identification 

Increasingly, governments, service providers, corporations, and disabled people themselves use information and communication technologies and digital media to find, classify, and connect with other disabled people. This session highlights the important role these technologies have in creating, maintaining, and changing disability statuses and identities. Papers could include quantitative methods, such as examinations of “big data” that include variables defining/classifying disability in a variety of ways, or qualitative studies that, for instance, examine identity management techniques of disabled people on social media. Papers could focus on a wide range of digital technologies (hardware, software, assistive technologies) and media, and disability in sensory/communicative, physical, or mental domains, as well as chronic illnesses. This session is co-sponsored with the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section. Thanks to a special relationship between CITAMS and the journal Information, Communication & Society (iCS), all papers with a theme of information, communication, or media that are presented at the 2023 meetings of the ASA are eligible for submission to a special issue of iCS edited by the CITAMS chair each fall. CITAMS and Disability in Society are committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Kerry Michael Dobransky, James Madison University

Disability in Society Roundtable Session   

Session Organizer: Kerry Michael Dobransky, James Madison University

Section on Drugs and Society

Substance Use Initiation, Maintenance, and Desistance across the Life Course 

This session seeks papers on the social determinants of substance use at all ages and life-course stages. Papers may focus on such topics as the initiation of substance use in adolescence or later in life, the factors that contribute to the maintenance of substance use or changes in the intensity of substance use in various populations or contexts, or processes of desistance via treatment or other mechanisms. Quantitative and qualitative papers are welcome.

Session Organizer: Andrew S. London, Syracuse University

Section on Drugs and Society Refereed Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Andrew S. London, Syracuse University

Section on Economic Sociology

Centering Inequalities in Economic Sociology   

What tools do economic sociologists have to identify and challenge pressing inequalities?  This session centers economic and social inequalities, and their underlying power dynamics, in economic sociology.

Session Organizer: Katherine Sobering, University of North Texas

Digital Marketplaces  

What happens to sociological theories of markets and exchange as they transition into digital space? What work and decisions are made to enable market dynamics on platforms? How do metrics transform other measures of value? This panel invites scholars to rethink core ideas of economic sociology for the digital age.

Session Organizer: Georg Rilinger, MIT Sloan School of Management

Economic Sociology Open Session   

This is an open call for all submissions to spotlight new and emerging themes, questions, and topics in the field of economic sociology.  Papers are welcome from across methodological and theoretical traditions, including syntheses, agenda-setters, and empirical studies.

Session Organizer: Beth Redbird, Northwestern University

Pasts and Futures of Economic Sociology    

In 2005, Nicole Woolsey Biggart organized a panel to think about the directions in the increasingly robust subfield of economic sociology.  The papers later appeared in a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist, “Coming and Going in Economic Sociology” in economic sociology, with papers that interrogated how sociology could shift a research agenda largely developed in response to the dominance of economics.  This panel, taking its name from one of those papers which was authored by Viviana Zelizer reconsiders the question in light of the past 15 years of research:  What are the future directions of economic sociology now?  How might the next generation of scholars build on and advance our conceptual frameworks?  This open session invites papers that refine, reimagine, and/or radically go beyond the conceptual pillars of economic sociology, whose intellectual cannon is often summarized as the study of network embeddedness, organizations, performativity, and how culture shapes economic activity.  What are the limitations and possibilities of economic sociology to push past this scope, and what might it contribute to the discipline of sociology, and beyond?

Session Organizer: Roi Livne, University of Michigan

Economic Sociology Roundtables  

Session Organizer: Roi Livne, University of Michigan

Session Organizer: Michelle Rabaut, University of Michigan

Section on Environmental Sociology

Creative interventions in environmental-sociology theory  

In this session, we aim to create an inclusive and inspiring space to discuss how new perspectives and new realities can be leveraged to offer creative interventions in environmental-sociology theory. Both conceptual and empirical presentations that offer constructive critique and advances in our theorizing of environment-society relations are welcome.

Session Organizer: Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta

Intersectionality and Justice  

Environmental and climate justice have long been a core field of study in environmental sociology. This research record has not always reflected a fulsome intersectional approach to justice, however, this has begun to change. This session will focus on integrating environmental justice scholarship with emerging research that forefronts Colonialism, Indigenous Knowledges, Queer Ecologies, Masculinities and Black Feminism, among other intersectional approaches.

Session Organizer: Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta

New insights in the sociology of climate change

Environmental sociologists have provided crucial new knowledge regarding the social dimensions of climate change for over 20 years. The dramatic escalation of impacts of climate change, however, have exacerbated old and introduced new political conflicts, justified new response strategies, and offered new realizations regarding the future of democracy and wellbeing in our society-environment relations, all of which will be the subjects of discussion in this session.

Session Organizer: Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta

Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables  

Session Organizer: Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta

Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis

New Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis  

In this session, we invite theoretical and/or empirical papers that focus on potential directions for ethnomethodology and/or conversation analysis.

Session Organizer: Danielle Pillet-Shore, University of New Hampshire

Current Research in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis    

In this session, we invite papers reporting current ethnomethodological and/or conversation analytic research.

Session Organizer: Jason Turowetz, University of California-Santa Barbara

Section on Evolution, Biology, and Society

Gender and Biosociology  

The intersection of biology, social structure, and environment is a critical nexus for understanding the meaning of gender and biology, and the (re)production of gender inequality. The relationship between feminism and biology has been uneven and not always harmonious – but there is tremendous potential to enhance social scientific understandings of biology and of gender through feminist approaches to biosocial research. This current section seeks papers that creatively meld feminist perspectives with sociology research that analyzes, applies, or critiques biosocial research.

Session Organizer: Kristen W. Springer, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Opportunities and challenges in the use of biological data in the social science research     

In social science surveys, biological data such as biomarkers, genetic and epigenetic information, and brain imaging data are now widely available. How does the use of these biological data help us learn about social structure and social processes? How can we better measure and predict individual outcomes using these novel biological data than we can using survey data alone? What methodological challenges that sociologists do face and need to address while using these data? This session covers innovative work that uses these biological data to study how social and biological mechanisms interact to shape individual outcomes, social networks and more broadly social stratification processes.

Session Organizer: Byungkyu Lee, Indiana University-Bloomington

Section on Global and Transnational Sociology

Contemporary Colonization, Occupied Land, and Indigenous Peoples in Global Perspective      

This session is a collaboration between the sections on Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations (IPNN) and Global and Transnational Sociology (GATS). As Indigenous scholars have long argued, colonization cannot be relegated to the past. In this session, we seek papers addressing resistance to and liberation from ongoing occupation and colonization. We encourage papers that adopt global or transnational approaches to examine local experiences of Indigeneity. Perspectives from Indigenous and Native scholars as well as those that center areas oft-neglected by U.S. sociology are particularly welcome.

Session Organizer: Jane H. Yamashiro, Mills College

Session Organizer: Katrina Quisumbing King, Northwestern University

Decolonial Womanisms and Feminisms of the Global South and Its Diasporas  

Theme: A Decolonial, Anti-racist, Internationalist Reclaiming of Our Souls, Our Priorities, And Our Time For Community-Facing Dialogue, Survival Scholarship, and Activism

Drawing on decolonial and womanist praxis, we are envisioning a session that brings together brave sociologists who are members of Global South diasporas. We give ourselves permission in our session to prioritize and center community-facing dialogue, survival, and activism as integral to our vocational praxis. In these submissions, we would like you to clearly articulate your positionality as a member of the Global South Diaspora and articulate your specific decolonial, anticolonial, antiracist, internationalist commitments to Global South regions and dispossessed indigenous communities globally. We are especially interested in critical scholarship on coloniality and neo-colonialism, white supremacy, global racial capitalism, military occupation, cultural imperialism, and epistemic violence. You may take inspiration for your submissions from decolonial, antiracist, womanist, and feminist thought in the vein(s) of Clenora Hudson-Weems’s Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, Mary E. Modupe’ Kolawole’s Womanism and African Consciousness, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Lila Abu-Lughod’s “Do Muslim Women Need Saving?” and Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. We encourage collaborative work with women of color community activists around the globe who are on the frontlines not for recognition of individual rights, but for collective struggles impacting whole families and communities.  We are seeking traditional paper submissions, and you can include other mediums of knowledge: including, but not limited to, activist art, performance art, poetry, speeches, and texts. If you are submitting these other mediums, please attach it as a pdf in your submission.  It will be a great time to be in community with like-minded, similarly situated diasporic scholars of the Global South.

Session Organizer: Monisha Jackson, Georgia State University

Session Organizer: Tannuja Rozario, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Session Organizer: Veda Hyunjin Kim, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Session Organizer: Sancha Doxilly Medwinter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

How Categories Travel 

This co-sponsored session between Global & Transnational Sociology and Science, Knowledge and Technology explores contestations over categories and systems of classification as they travel across borders. This session invites papers that consider various pathways and transformations that categorical infrastructure undergoes when considered from a transnational or comparative perspective. For example, categories, such as diagnoses or identities, are often imposed with epistemic violence by Western knowledge regimes and institutions, but they are just as often contested and domesticated in hybrid ways as they are taken up, used and challenged by non-Western actors – from states, to medical institutions, to social movements, to patients and activists. We are especially interested in papers that situate such considerations within the Global South or that consider South-South or South-North flows. We also particularly welcome papers that engage with research and theorizing by scholars based outside of North America and Western Europe. Note: This is one of two co-sponsored sessions by GATS and SKAT.

Session Organizer: Claire Laurier Decoteau, University of Illinois-Chicago

Session Organizer: Jaimie Morse, University of California-Santa Cruz

Racial Capitalism, Emancipation, and Global Solidarity  

Black Marxist and Black Radical thinkers have long theorized the relationship between capitalism, colonialism, and racism. From W.E.B. Du Bois to Eric Williams, C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones, Walter Rodney, and many others, these writers have theorized the origins and perpetuation of a global system reliant on capitalist exploitation, imperialism, colonial and neo-colonial rule, racial domination, extraction, land dispossession, racial slavery, sexual and gendered oppression, and dehumanization. This panel invites papers that engage theories from this tradition and probe the history of racial capitalism, and the structural and ideological mechanisms of its reproduction at the global level and/or from different spatial and temporal sites. We also seek papers that build theory from struggles against global racial capitalism and for justice and freedom around the world, including working class struggles, Black/Third World feminisms, indigenous struggles for land, movements for emancipation and decolonization, and others, with an eye towards the transformative power of political education and questions of global solidarity. This session is co-sponsored with the Theory Section.

Session Organizer: Zophia Edwards, The Johns Hopkins University

Session Organizer: Ricarda Hammer, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Transnational Migration, Borders, and Temporality   

Scholars have drawn attention to the transnational nature of migration, demonstrating how migrants and refugees exist across borders and build transnational ties. Over the course of their lives, migrants undergo transformations: They face displacement, detention, and state oversight and violence. They live with their pasts. They envision futures. What can we learn about transnational migration through a temporal lens and how might scholars incorporate it in their research? This session invites papers that considers the rhythms, cycles, and tempos of transnational migrant life. We particularly invite papers that draw on transnational feminist, queer, Black, and Indigenous theoretical frameworks to rethink the transnational migration experience.

Session Organizer: Miguel Arturo Avalos, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

GATS Roundtables  

Session Organizer: Emily Vasquez, University of Illinois-Chicago

Section on History of Sociology and Social Thought

Racial and gender dynamics with the ASA: Conflict and change from 1948 to 2023

Seventy-five years ago, in 1948, the Democratic Party adopted a civil rights plank on their platform, which led to the walk-out of Strom Thurmund and other Southern Democrats who later formed the Dixiecrat party (later absorbed within the Republican Party).  These events contributed to the tumultuous changes in American society during the following decades, particularly concerning the struggles for racial and gender equality.  The effects of these events also were felt within the ASA itself as it gradually became evident that it was no longer possible for our professional organization to be dominated as it had been by white males.

Session Organizer: Jeffrey A. Halley, University of Texas-San Antonio

Social Thought(s): Why Age and Gender Persist as Sources of Inequality  

Age and gender, along with class, race and other status characteristics, are well-known sources of structural inequality and individual disadvantage.  Economic and cultural systems, central among which are capitalism and patriarchy, contribute greatly to our understanding of why age and gender persist as sources of inequality.  Yet this persistence is complex, explanations of which will require examination of structural, cultural, and social psychological factors.  This session seeks to confront this complexity, rendering it more accessible to our understanding.

Session Organizer: James J. Dowd, University of Georgia

Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility

Contextual and Place-Based Mechanisms of Inequality 

This session will host papers that examine how social and institutional contexts shape social and economic inequality. Topics may include, but are not limited to, residential neighborhoods, activity spaces, schools or school attendance areas, political units/boundaries, and virtual contexts.

Session Organizer: Kendra Bischoff, Cornell University

Intra- and Intergenerational Mobility in Contexts  

Innovative studies on intra-and intergenerational social and economic mobility in recent years have advanced our understanding of how opportunities are unequally distributed across individuals and over the course of their lives. Placing our knowledge of mobility in macro and micro social contexts appears to be a next important step to be taken. This session invites papers examining intra-and intergenerational mobility with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the contexts of mobility, such as (1) comparative contexts (i.e., across societies and/or historical changes) and (2) mechanisms (i.e., social processes in schools, families, and labor markets). Submissions of papers examining non-Western societies are encouraged.

Session Organizer: Seongsoo Choi, Yonsei University

Mathematical and Computational Analyses of Inequality and Mobility 

The session aims to bring together a set of high-quality papers on facets of inequality in society and/or on intergenerational or intragenerational social mobility in any domains by using mathematical models or computational methods. As such, we envision a session with papers engaging the foci of both sections and can have either a methodological or a substantive objective.

Session Organizer: Tim Futing Liao, University of Illinois

New Directions in the Study of Culture and Inequality  

How culture patterns social stratification has long been a concern of inequality research, yet in recent years our understanding of culture has evolved profoundly while empirical patterns of inequality were simultaneously shifting. This session welcomes contributions exploring culture and inequality in light of these recent developments. While not limited to these themes, it hopes to examine how the new conceptual and methodological tools of cultural sociology help to renew our understanding of stratification processes; how social actors make sense of contemporary stratification; or how cultural explanations might illuminate the new regime of inequality characteristic of the early 21st century.

Session Organizer: Fabien Accominotti, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Open topic: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility   

All papers which do not fit this year’s other IPM sessions but are related to inequality, poverty, and mobility are welcomed.

Session Organizer: Dara Shifrer, Portland State University

The institutional foundations of poverty 

This session focuses on the structural factors that influence poverty. How is poverty affected by such factors as policy, labor market institutions, the incarceration system, and spatial variation? Papers that focus on both causes and consequences of poverty are welcomed.

Session Organizer: Tom VanHeuvelen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Referred Roundtables    

All papers related to inequality, poverty, and mobility are welcome.

Session Organizer: Caroline Hanley, College of William and Mary

Section on International Migration

Frameworks Revisited: Advancing an Intellectual Agenda on Race and Migration      

This session will consider how research and theories of migration and immigrant integration should meld theories of race and racialization to analyze migration patterns and the dynamics of inclusion and integration.

Session Organizer: Jody Agius Vallejo, University of Southern California

Session Organizer; David A. Cook-Martín, University of Colorado-Boulder

Migration, Citizenship, and Legacies of Empire and Colonialism

The session will address the colonial roots and contemporary colonial implications of Global Migration. Papers may also explore the colonial systems that have shaped migration, inclusion, membership, and rights.

Session Organizer: Stephanie L. Canizales, University of California-Merced

Time, Life Stage, and Temporalities in Migration Studies  

This session seeks to advance sociological understanding of the interplay among temporalities, place/space, and human agency as factors that mold immigrants’ migration experiences and/or their incorporation or exclusion across time and life stages. The panel will also investigate how immigration policy and enforcement structures temporalities that result in changes and challenges across life stages and across national borders.

Session Organizer: Amanda Rachel Cheong, University of British Columbia

Violence and Migration: Theory, Praxis, and Resistance

Papers in this session may scrutinize new ways in which violence is perpetuated in institutions, migration industries, via documentation practices, and state power and how it affects movement across borders and/or reception. Papers may also examine how immigrants exhibit agency in the face of violence and the ways in they resist or contest categorization and state power. We welcome a range of papers in this session, including papers that investigate theory and praxis, scholar/community activist and organization partnerships, and research with specific policy impacts.

Session Organizer: Andrea Gomez Cervantes, Wake Forest University

International Migration Refereed Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Stephanie L. Canizales, University of California-Merced

Session Organizer: Amanda Rachel Cheong, University of British Columbia

Session Organizer: Andrea Gomez Cervantes, Wake Forest University

Section on Labor and Labor Movements

Labor’s Resurgence  

This panel will address renewed interest in the labor movement, occasioned by recent successes at Starbucks, Amazon, and in the education sector. Paper topics may include but are not limited to: new modes of organization, direct action, strikes, alt labor organizations, innovative labor-community coalitions, the role of young workers, and worker militance.

Session Organizer: Cedric de Leon, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Session Organizer: Erin E. Hatton, University at Buffalo

Session Organizer: Sara Gia Trongone, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Youbin Kang, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Katy Habr, Columbia University

Race, Gender, and Labor  

The Labor and Labor Movements programming committee invites papers that engage the question of intersecting inequalities from the perspective of work, workplace struggles, and movement building. Topics may include but are not limited to: coalitions between unions and organizations mobilizing for racial and gender equity; worker centers and the struggle for immigrant rights; the gendered and racialized dynamics of labor control and discipline; the politics of workplace inclusion and discrimination; and the feminization and diversification of the workforce and organized labor.

Session Organizer: Cedric de Leon, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Session Organizer: Sara Gia Trongone, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Erin E. Hatton, University at Buffalo

Session Organizer: Youbin Kang, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Katy Habr, Columbia University

Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables   

This is an open call for submissions on labor and labor movements for those interested in an informal and collaborative workshop setting.

Session Organizer: Cedric de Leon, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Session Organizer: Erin E. Hatton, University at Buffalo

Session Organizer: Sara Gia Trongone, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Youbin Kang, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session Organizer: Katy Habr, Columbia University

Section on Latina/o Sociology

Latinx Communities and Public Sociology  

This session seeks papers that ground their research on Latinx issues and communities that include and not limited to gun violence, race relations, representation, and education. We encourage work that engages in public debates and aims to inform and connect with Latinx communities and the greater society. This session is open to any papers using quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods.

Session Organizer: Vilma Ortiz, University of California-Los Angeles

Session Organizer: Celia Olivia Lacayo, University of California-Los Angeles

Latinx Communities in Local and Regional Contexts   

This session seeks presentations exploring how place (local/regional) shapes the experiences and integration of Latinxs. Potential topics of interest include, but are not limited to: comparative studies that explore regional differences; papers that focus on Philadelphia or Pennsylvania; papers that investigate how gender interacts with place. This session is open to any papers using quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods.

Session Organizer: Vilma Ortiz, University of California-Los Angeles

Session Organizer: Gabriela León-Pérez, Virginia Commonwealth University

Race and Gender in Latinx Communities   

This session seeks presentations that build on the legacies of women of color feminist theories to examine how race/ethnicity and gender, along with other social forces, intersect to shape the lived experiences of Latinx subjects. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: negotiations among Afro-Latinx and Indigenous peoples; a relational examination of Latinx people’s gender subjectivities; Latinx people’s negotiation of racialized and classed aesthetics. We especially seek papers that challenge the Eurocentric and patriarchal epistemological practices within the field of Sociology to theorize racial and gender inequalities as co-constitutive of each other. This session is open to any papers using quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods.

Session Organizer: Vilma Ortiz, University of California-Los Angeles

Session Organizer: Michelle Gomez Parra, The University of California, Santa Cruz

Section on Latina/o Sociology Roundtables 

We welcome papers on any topics for the round tables.

Session Organizer: Vilma Ortiz, University of California-Los Angeles

Session Organizer: Karen Ivette Tejada, University of Hartford

Section on Marxist Sociology

Du Bois against the Sociological Canon 

The past decade has witnessed the success of a movement to restore W.E.B. Du Bois to his rightful place in the sociological canon. In an earlier period, Du Bois’ inclusion tended to be limited to a couple of paragraphs from The Souls of Black Folk; now, Black Reconstruction, Darkwater, and The Philadelphia Negro, among other writings, have found their way onto syllabi in multiple subfields, and it is relatively standard to include him in introductory theory courses. But in the process, his work has been relatively defanged, so to speak. Rather than sociology becoming more Du Boisian, Du Bois’ writings have been assimilated to professional sociology. Relatively mainstream work on race and inequality masquerades as “Du Boisian,” and non-activist scholars have been quick to identify as “Du Boisian scholars.” Of course, Du Bois forcefully rejected the notion that scholarship alone was sufficient to create change very early in his career; it was as an activist, equal parts Marxist and pan-Africanist, that Du Bois sought to challenge racial capitalism, largely by breaking with a discipline characterized by a white liberalism hostile to radical thought. This panel seeks to challenge the recent co-optation of Du Bois’ thought and its quiet incorporation into the white liberal project of American sociology. In other words, how might we insist upon the substantive inclusion of Du Bois – not as a token, but as a frontal challenge to white liberal sociology?

Session Organizer: Brendan Innis McQuade, University of Southern Maine

Marxist Section Open Paper Session

We especially are interested in papers that suggest new pathways for Marxist Research, Theory, and Praxis. We always welcome papers that analyze the reality of interlocking oppressions and the bases for potential (new or revived) solidarities in struggle. We invite a wide range of themes and topics.

Session Organizer: Brendan Innis McQuade, University of Southern Maine

Marxist Section Roundtables   

Session Organizer: Brendan Innis McQuade, University of Southern Maine

Section on Mathematical Sociology

Mathematical and Computational Approaches to Agency and Social Networks  

Jointly sponsored by the Mathematical Sociology and Rationality & Society Sections, this session invites paper submissions examining the interplay between agency and social networks through the use of mathematical concepts or computational techniques. With varying levels of agency, actors strategically form social networks or find themselves embedded within them. Social networks, conversely, shape behavior through the former’s structure, culture, and the characteristics of the network actors. Moreover, action and networks can co-evolve. This session encourages papers that either make novel mathematical or computational extensions or identify key empirical findings using existing models.

Session Organizer: Anthony Paik, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Mathematical and Computational Models and Methods in Social Psychology  

We seek papers for a session sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Sociology and Social Psychology Sections. This session will build on the longstanding connections between the mathematical sociology and social psychology and explore new opportunities for further development.  We invite papers that advance, extend, test, or build on existing computational and mathematically formalized theoretical models in social psychology (or introduce new models or extensions); employ mathematical and computational models and methods (including but not limited to network analysis, agent-based models, text analysis, machine learning, and mathematical modeling) to explore social psychological questions and/or theory in innovative ways; work employing unique sources of data/complex data and computational methods to explore social psychological questions and/or theory; and work that demonstrates how social psychological theory and insights may be utilized by the broader population of mathematical and computational sociologists across the discipline.  We especially invite works in progress (e.g., extended abstracts) that would benefit from professional feedback.

Session Organizer: Bryan Christopher Cannon, Franklin and Marshall College

Section on Medical Sociology

Medical Mistrust, Misinformation, and Health  

The World Health Organization recently identified the problem of infodemics, in which misinformation leads to mistrust and negative health outcomes. This session will explore issues of misinformation and medical mistrust in the context of health outcomes, health care settings, or other aspects of the medical encounter or profession. We welcome papers on a wide range of topics that examine these dynamics.

Session Organizer: Jennifer A. Reich, University of Colorado Denver

Racism, Discrimination, and Impacts on Health and Wellbeing  

This session is devoted to exploring the connections among racism, discrimination, and health (broadly defined). We welcome submissions that address these topics at the micro, mezzo, or macro levels.

Session Organizer: Alexis C. Dennis, McGill University

Reproductive Justice, Health, and Health Care  

This session is devoted to reproductive justice in health and/or health care. Papers that are guided by the framework of reproductive justice to examine health inequities or topics in health policy, health technologies, health care interactions, medical education, or medical knowledge are especially welcome.

Session Organizer: Miranda R. Waggoner, Florida State University

Structural Inequalities, Medicine, and Health    

This session is devoted to investigating the causes and consequences of structural inequalities as they relate to health and wellbeing. Papers on any aspect of the medical encounter, medical professions, health care systems, or population health outcomes are welcome.

Session Organizer: Christy LaShaun Erving, University of Texas at Austin

Session Organizer: Ryon J. Cobb, University of Georgia

Medical Sociology Roundtable Session 

Papers in this roundtable session will explore a diversity of medical sociology areas, from health to health care to health disparities and beyond.

Session Organizer: Brandon James Moore, The Ohio State University

Session Organizer: Christina Hagan Bijou

Section on Methodology

Causal Inference in the Social Sciences 

Social science theories often involve causal claims. Scholars who embrace explicitly causal research goals unlock new research questions, transparency about untestable identification assumptions, and opportunities to develop new estimators. This session will present new advances in causal inference methodology and their application to research questions in the social sciences.

Session Organizer: Ian Lundberg, Cornell University

Computational Sociology: Methods and Application   

This joint session of the Methodology and Mathematical Sociology Sections covers new work that develops new computational methods and/or applies computational methods to novel sources of data. Different techniques may include using computational approaches for causal inference (e.g., regression trees), measurement (e.g., natural language processing), discovery, and dimension reduction (e.g., clustering), as well as other relevant approaches. Different data sources may involve administrative records, historical archives, text and image data, social media, network data, and data that link traditional social surveys with emerging ‘Big Data’ in social sciences.

Session Organizer: Mario D. Molina, New York University Abu Dhabi

Text as Data and Social Measurement

This panel brings together papers working on new applications of text as data methods. We are especially interested in work which applies text as data methods to estimate underlying social quantities of interest. We welcome papers working on either descriptive or causal quantities of interest, as well as papers that use audio, images, video, or other forms of high-dimensional data.

Session Organizer: Hannah Waight, Princeton University

Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work

Global and Transnational Organizations and Work    

This session welcomes all submissions relating to the broad topic of global and transnational organizations and work.  The session title may be changed in the final program to reflect a theme emerging from the submissions.

Session Organizer: Angelina Grigoryeva, University of Toronto

Session Organizer: Yingyao Wang, University of Virginia

Inequality at Work  

This session welcomes all submissions relating to the broad topic of inequality at work.  The session title may be changed in the final program to reflect a theme emerging from the submissions.

Session Organizer: Koji Chavez, Indiana University-Bloomington

Session Organizer: Katherine Weisshaar, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Innovative and Transformative Organizations   

This session welcomes all submissions relating to the broad topic of innovative and transformative organizations.  The session title may be changed in the final program to reflect a theme emerging from the submissions.

Session Organizer: Katherine K. Chen, The City College of New York and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY)

Unstable and Precarious Work 

This session welcomes all submissions relating to the broad topic of unstable and precarious work.  The session title may be changed in the final program to reflect a theme that emerges from the submissions.

Session Organizer: Ofer Sharone, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Session Organizer: Aliya Hamid Rao, London School of Economics

Work processes  

This session welcomes all submissions relating to the broad topic of work processes.  The session title may be changed in the final program to reflect a theme emerging from the submissions.

Session Organizer: Kathleen Griesbach, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Session Organizer: Jennifer Lauren Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables   

Submissions on all topics relating to organizations, occupations and work are welcome.

Session Organizer: Elizabeth H. Gorman, University of Virginia

Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict

Open Session on Issues in Peace, War and Social Conflict   

This is an open-session for papers related to peace, conflict studies, and military sociology. The session is open to all papers addressing pressing empirical and/or theoretical issues in these fields.

Session Organizer: Eric W. Schoon, Ohio State University

Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section Roundtable Session    

Roundtable sessions for the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section

Session Organizer: Robert Braun, University of California-Berkeley

Section on Political Economy of the World-System

Crisis, What Crisis? Dynamics of Global Crisis in the 21st Century      

Since the turn of the 21st century, there is growing awareness that our world is experiencing interlinked crises at social, economic, political and environmental spheres.  In critical sociological studies, it has almost become impossible to talk about ecology, geopolitics, finance, reproduction or health without referring to the term “crisis.”  Yet, there is no consensus on the exact nature of these crises or why we have been experiencing different forms of crises around the world in great synchrony. Some scholars tend to view these crises as different manifestations of the crisis of neoliberalism.  For some scholars, these simultaneous crises are linked to the crisis of the U.S. world hegemony and the post-1945 world order as a whole. For others, they are symptoms of the crisis (and demise) of the capitalist world-economy as a whole.  This panel aims to investigate the nature of crises we have been experiencing, their causes and consequences from a global and macro-historical perspective.

Session Organizer: Sahan Savas Karatasli, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Session Organizer: Sefika Kumral, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Global Resistance, Systemic Crises, and Alternatives Beyond Historical Capitalism   

In the first decades of the twenty-first century, there has been a worldwide explosion of social protest, unfolding with an intensity and scope that has been rare in the history of the capitalist world-system. Such periods have been intertwined with periods of deep system-level crises of capitalism. In the present period (as in past analogous periods), we witness an array of movements, ranging from ones that are predominantly exclusionary (including genocidal) to ones that are pointing (explicitly or implicitly) towards alternatives paths out of the deepening crisis and toward a more just and equitable post-capitalist world system. Papers in this session will focus on social protest from below as a lens through which to understand the multiple crises of global capitalism and vice-versa. We welcome papers that link concrete local struggles to world-systemic dynamics; that place the current global wave in historical perspective; and that analyze the ways in which current resistance from below may signal the interstitial emergence of routes out of the deepening global crisis and alternatives beyond capitalism.

Session Organizer: Ricado E Jacobs, University of California-Santa Barbara

Session Organizer: Beverly Judith Silver, Johns Hopkins University

Section on Political Economy of the World-System Refereed Roundtables    

The PEWS Refereed Roundtables will include front-line empirical research offering new and refreshing ideas about our world-systems using global, political, and economic theoretical perspectives. As our world continues to become more interconnected and many of the remaining challenges call for solutions that require nation-states and people to work together, research and dialogue from different areas of expertise within the field of Sociology is essential. Abstracts and paper submissions received online will cover a variety of themes, including Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Gender Inequality, Racial Inequality and Justice, Stratification, Labor Rights and Migration, Refugees, Human Rights, Interstate and Intrastate Conflicts, Nationalism, Populism, Mass Media and Social Media, and more.

Session Organizer: Jeremy Louis Levine, Stony Brook University

Section on Political Sociology

BIPOC Political Thought in the Post-Trump Era 

Social media misinformation, voter suppression, the rise of Black Lives Matter, the activism of the LANDBACK and #NoDAPL movements, the visible re-emergence and mainstreaming of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism, the formation of a (relatively) multiracial far right, the tumultuous and insecure fate of DACA, the continued increase in BIPOC diversity due to immigration, the rescinding of Roe v. Wade, the Covid-19 pandemic — a lot has happened in the last few years that has not only significantly impacted the lives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans, but that also may have changed the ways in which they view themselves in relation to American institutions and social structures, what issues they believe should be important within BIPOC communities and within the country overall, and their future in a country that looks very different than it did during the Obama era. This session will focus on understanding current understandings of various BIPOC political thought in the U.S., whether and how they have potentially changed in recent decades, and what we can learn from how BIPOC politics and political epistemologies have responded to the changes in larger sociopolitical structures in the United States.

Session Organizer: Marya T. Mtshali, Harvard University

Populism and Authoritarianism

In contrast to the democratic turn predicted by political scientists at the so-called end of the Cold War, authoritarianism and populism are on the rise, both globally and within democratic states. While these factors are historically associated with World War II or conceptually associated with “foreign” states, they are instead present in, and supported by, democratic states. What are the factors driving this trend? How are populism and authoritarian practicing exercised within, and supported by, democracies? What does authoritarianism and populism look like in a technology-fueled 21st century? How is it strengthened by enduring racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of injustice and discrimination? How are social movements both fueling and combating this trend?  How do authoritarian regimes ensure their survival? How do they respond to social and political demands for inclusion? How do citizens of authoritarian states make claims given the restrictions in authoritarian settings? This session will explore the emergence, dynamics, and outcomes of authoritarianism and populism to better understand the social context shaping the contemporary social world and its most vulnerable populations.

Session Organizer: Dana M. Moss, University of Notre Dame

Session Organizer: Ali Kadivar, Boston College

The Politics of Climate Change 

The panel seeks analyses of institutional and noninstitutional strategies to combat climate change. Papers may include local, national, and international policies that have proven effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, high road and just labor transitions to a green economy, climate planning, adaption, and resilience models that incorporate equity, successful climate action campaigns, and similar themes. Submissions addressing the political economy of the prevention of climate reform will also be considered.

Session Organizer: Paul D. Almeida, University of California-Merced

The Politics of Gender and Sexuality  

Understanding power from a gender perspective means integrating gender and sexuality into the mainstream of social and political theory and practice. From colonialism to transgender violence, gender politics is a vast area of debate. This panel explores the intersectionality of power, gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, colonial experience, and nationality. Papers are invited to reflect on the intersection of theoretical, methodological, and policy approaches to gender in politics by examining how gender factors into political theories, the political epistemology of feminist methodology, and the structure of gender relations and sexual politics from a US or a global viewpoint.

Session Organizer: Rita Stephan, North Carolina State University

Tides and Struggles of Democracy and Constitutionalism      

The past half century has been shaped by shifting tides of democratization and popular constitutionalism. Between the mid-1970s and the 1990s, democratic transitions ushered in through constitutional revolutions expanded globally. Over the following decades, however, that expansion began to break and in much of the world, recede. Session organizers invite papers that can inform our understanding of contemporary struggles between democracy and de-democratization in “The Decisive Decade” of the 2020s.  Papers may draw from recent or ongoing cases as well as historical and comparative analyses.

Session Organizer: Yao Lu, Columbia University

Session Organizer: Ben Manski, George Mason University

Section on Political Sociology Roundtables   

Open submission roundtable session.

Session Organizer: Luis Ruben Gonzalez Marquez, University of California-Merced

Session Organizer: Caroline Grace Martinez, University of California-Irvine

Section on Race, Gender, and Class

Disability in Society: How and Why Race, Class, and Gender Matter    

These papers engage how racial, gendered, and class constraints shape how disability is acknowledged and accommodated (or how people with disabilities are treated), including treatment of disabilities over time, public policies and practices, social movements and self-advocacy groups, the history of disabilities framing and discrimination, and disparities in disability diagnoses, care, treatments, and experiences.  This session is a collaboration between the Race, Class, and Gender and Disability in Society sections. We are committed to full accessibility of participation for all members and will work with contributors to ensure this.

Session Organizer: Kerry Michael Dobransky, James Madison University

Lifting Black and Indigenous Erasures: Centering the Lived Experiences of Black and Indigenous Populations   

The logics of white supremacy, settler colonialization, and slavery seek to erase the presence and experiences of both Indigenous and Black populations. In this session, we seek papers that use intersectional approaches and perspectives to resist and liberate from ongoing logics of erasure, including those that address goals for community building among Black and Indigenous populations. This session is a collaboration between the sections on Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations and Race, Gender, and Class.

Session Organizer: LaShawnDa L. Pittman, University of Washington

The Future(s) of Intersectionality   

What are the future directions of intersectionality? Increasingly, the aphorism “the future is intersectional” is being used in policymaking, science and social science, environmentalism, public health, technology, and social movements, by bloggers, and among both older and younger generations. Papers for this session will address future directions for incorporating intersectionality in sociological research by exploring the possibilities and limitations of an intersectional approach within sociological theory, methods, and analytic approaches. Papers can also address how sociology as a discipline might interrogate intersectionality, power, privilege, and positionality (e.g., who we teach, what we teach, who teaches, who gets funding, who occupies positions of power within our departments, associations, and such).

Session Organizer: LaShawnDa L. Pittman, University of Washington

The Politics of Abortion at the Intersections of Race, Sexuality, Gender, and Class   

Papers for this section will address ongoing debates about the racial, gendered, and classed violence in abortion politics, how these intersections shape access to and experiences of abortion, the geography/geopolitics of abortion, public perceptions, social movements, and post-abortion care, as well as how an intersectional framing can inform our understanding.

Session Organizer: LaShawnDa L. Pittman, University of Washington

Transnational Racializations    

Papers for this session will examine racialization processes from a transnational perspective, including though not limited to exploring comparative work on racialization in various societies; nationalist ideologies and the construction of race; processes and mechanisms of racialization; how racial ideologies and practices that originate in sending countries, travel with migrants across borders, and shape and are shaped by racial ideologies, structures, and practices in receiving countries; the histories of and current forms of transnational racialization; and transnationalism and racial hierarchies.

Session Organizer: Ghassan Moussawi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtables

Session Organizer: LaShawnDa L. Pittman, University of Washington

Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities

75th Anniversary of Oliver Cromwell Cox’s Caste, Class & Race 

A long history of scholarship in sociology ties U.S. slavery to the development of capitalism and modern business, finance, and law. One of the early pioneers of this research is Oliver Cromwell Cox.  In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Oliver Cox’s Caste, Class and Race, we invite papers that interrogate the relationship between race, slavery and modern western capitalism. Papers should address the centrality of the relationship between slavery and capitalism—specifically focusing on Racial Capitalism. Please submit papers concerning the history of race and slavery in the U.S. and how it impacted the development of business and markets, including American academic institutions, medical racism, housing disparities, intersections of race, institutional/organization policy and law, economic disparities and disparities in education. Empirical and theoretical pieces are welcomed.

Session Organizer: Waverly Duck, University of California Santa Barbara

ADOS & The Diaspora Wars 

This session addresses the so-called “The Diaspora Wars.” It examines the Black ethnic boundary work occurring largely occurring in the United States as well as globally. It critically analyzes the American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS) movement and its claims for reparations and other public policy. It also examines accusations of xenophobia and nativism from Black American descendants of US enslavement, responses from Blacks with immigrant origins, as well as Blacks in other parts of the Diaspora and continental Africans.

Session Organizer: Chinyere Osuji, University of Maryland-College Park

Epistemological Racism and Black Resistance   

This session is designed to diversely challenge and counter longstanding epistemological racism. This includes but is not limited to the white legitimation and production of knowledge base. Ideally, presentations and discussions rely on and advance Black racial/culturally centered knowledge – the productions and disseminations of it theoretically, methodologically, and more – as Black resistance.  Further, this session attends to scholarship reflective of Black framers, frameworks, curriculum, and the like in the wake of often racist and misogynoir attacks on Black intellectuals and their works particularly.

Session Organizer: Andrea S. Boyles, Tulane University

Institutional Accountability in the Wake of State Sanctioned Murders and Social Movements     

In the wake of George Floyd’s state-sanctioned murder on May 25th, 2020, Minneapolis and the world erupted in protests. In response many organizations issued statements and promised a changed relationship to Black communities and to policing. This session invites papers that examine the emergence and contemporary state of those institutional responses. We also welcome papers analyzing this phenomena–institutional responses–as a response to other related movements.

Session Organizer: Joyce M. Bell, University of Chicago

Race and DNA 

Session Organizer: Dwanna L. McKay, Colorado College

Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Open Paper Session  

This session will highlight innovative, cutting edge, and novel research in the study of race and ethnicity broadly speaking.

Session Organizer: Joyce M. Bell, University of Chicago

Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Aisha Ariantique Upton, Susquehanna University

Section on Rationality and Society

Situated Decision Making: New Sociological Directions 

The situated nature of decision making has long been a concern of sociological research, yet in recent years methodological and conceptual developments, as well as a renewed focus on concrete decision-making behavior by neighboring disciplines, have pushed sociology’s study of decision making in new directions. This session welcomes contributions exploring decision making, broadly construed, in light of these recent developments. While not limited to these themes, it hopes to examine how the new tools and data of computational social science help us to model decision-making behavior; how social networks and relations interact with cognitive and cultural mechanisms in shaping actors’ decisions; and how these dynamics play out in a wide range of empirical cases, from labor and product markets to political processes and life-course decisions.

Session Organizer: Fabien Accominotti, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Section on Rationality and Society Roundtables   

Session Organizer: Maurice Bokanga, University of Chicago

Session Organizer: Kristen Tzoc, Boston University

Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology

Encountering Aging, Science, and Technology: Whose Future? Whose Definition of Aging?

Populations across the globe are aging. Although the “graying of society” is happening at different rates and to differing degrees in various countries, most countries are expected to see increases in their elder populations. There has been significant investment in science, technology, and knowledge to imagine ways of supporting aging populations. This session invites papers that investigate how knowledge, science, and technology co-constitute what counts as aging and what counts as old age in the 21st century.

Session Organizer: Kelly A. Joyce, Drexel University

Global and Comparative SKAT  

This co-sponsored session between Science, Knowledge and Technology (SKAT) and Global & Transnational Sociology (GATS) invites papers that investigate the transnational circulation of scientific knowledge, expertise, ideas, information, and categories. We also welcome research that examines knowledge production, medical practice, and technological development in comparative perspective. We are particularly interested in scholarship that advances the sociological study of science, knowledge, and technology across national borders and/or beyond the Global North. This is one of two co-sponsored sessions by SKAT and GATS.

Session Organizer: Larry Au, The City College of New York

Session Organizer: Ken Chih-Yan Sun, Villanova University

Open Session on Issues Related to Science, Knowledge, and Technology       

This open session invites papers that sociologically investigate science, knowledge, and technology.

Session Organizer: Melanie Jeske, University of Chicago

Session Organizer: Emily Vasquez, University of Illinois-Chicago

The Politics of Data and Quantification in the Public Sector      

Governments around the world leverage data and statistics to legitimize themselves and shape public policy. In recent decades, new forms of data and quantification became possible and applied widely in the public sectors globally. Accompanying this change is the formation of new styles of governance, the acceleration of datafication and quantification in new social domains, the introduction of new technologies information and communication technologies, and the involvement of new stakeholders. How should sociologists understand these changes under the broader transformation of the state, market, and society relationship? This panel will welcome papers that unfold these new developments through diverse theoretical and empirical perspectives.

Session Organizer: danah boyd, Microsoft Research

Session Organizer:  Chuncheng Liu, University of California San Diego

Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Roundtable Session    

The SKAT roundtable session invites papers that take up the sociological investigation of science, knowledge, and technology.

Session Organizer: Alyson K. Spurgas, Trinity College

Session Organizer: Yen Ji Julia Byeon, Princeton University

Section on Social Psychology

Open Topics in Social Psychology 

Social Psychology is an incredibly vibrant and diverse area of sociology. We encourage submissions dealing with any topic of interest to social psychologists for this session. New advances in theory, methods, or analytic approaches as well as substantive results of interest to social psychologists are all encouraged.

Session Organizer: Chantrey J. Murphy, California State University-Long Beach

Social Psychology in Sociology and Sociology in Social Psychology 

Specialization is necessary in order to make progress and develop areas of research, but it can also obscure the connection between different areas of inquiry. Often the same mechanism may be relevant to processes in multiple specialty areas, introducing the risk of duplicated efforts. Similarly, theoretical ideas or tools developed for one purpose may often provide critical advances for other areas. This session focuses on the ways that social psychology contributes to other areas of sociology, as well as how sociology more broadly contributes to social psychology. We welcome papers that use social psychology to address theoretical and substantive questions elsewhere in the sociological domain, as well as papers that draw on insights from elsewhere in sociology to enrich social psychology.

Session Organizer: Elisa Jayne Bienenstock, Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix

Social Psychology in the Wider World: Policy and Practice  

The advancement of social psychology is worthwhile solely to improve our understanding of human behavior, but rigorous results also stand to inform concrete debates in the wider world. Many debates about tax policy, healthcare reform, addressing inequality, and addressing racial and social justice issues implicitly adopt assumptions about how individuals and small groups work, and what they find rewarding. Yet in not all cases are these assumptions justified by rigorous social psychological research. This session focuses on how social psychology informs, and is informed by, policy and practice in the wider world. We encourage papers that speak to the models the underlie debates over public policy options or that use these debates to make additional theoretical, methodological, or substantive advances.

Session Organizer: Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, Washington State University

Social Psychology on the Cutting Edge  

Social psychology has a deep and rich history of scientific discovery, but its most important trait is its ongoing ability to innovate. Almost by definition, scientific research generates approximations of reality, they should inevitably give way to better approximations, gradually bringing our knowledge more closely into alignment with the facts. A key driver of this process is innovation; researchers generate new theoretical elements, new methodological approaches, and new analytic tools that allow insights that were once impossible. This session is focused on novel advances in social psychology, be they methodological, theoretical, or analytical. We encourage the submission of papers that push the envelope in some way, enhancing the theoretical, methodological, or analytical state-of-the-art.

Session Organizer: Craig M. Rawlings, Duke University

Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology

From op-eds to Tik-Tok: Using sociological insights to shape the public narrative   

As sociologists, we are aware of all that we and the discipline can contribute to understanding our world and fostering social change. Yet sociological concepts, findings, and tools are little known to an audience beyond that of scientific journals. We want to highlight and amplify innovative methods of sharing sociological research and theory in formats more accessible to the broader public audience.

We invite submissions of op-eds, articles in non-specialized publications, podcasts, Tik-Tok videos, blogs, and other creative products you developed to share sociological insights. Your product should be accompanied by an abstract (akin to an “artist’s statement”) that addresses these questions: What sociological frame or concept was used? How did you decide that this medium was most appropriate? Who was the intended audience? What were challenges of this form of publishing sociology? What have you learned from this experience that could be helpful for other sociologists wishing to share their knowledge in non-traditional formats? How successful do you believe this project was for disseminating sociological knowledge? How might you measure the impact of this form of sociological product? What is next for the project or product?

Session Organizer: Lorella Palazzo, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Session Organizer: Kesha S. Moore, Thurgood Marshall Institute

Section on Sociology of Body and Embodiment

Educating, Disciplining, and/or Empowering Bodies  

How are bodies educated, disciplined or empowered by social institutions, individuals, and discourse? In turn, how do bodies themselves educate, discipline, or empower individuals, institutions, or communities. On this panel, we seek to understand the ways in which we both learn about bodies and learn from bodies that are both enabling and constraining.

Session Organizer: Maxine Leeds Craig, University of California-Davis

Section on Sociology of Body and Embodiment Roundtables  

Papers that engage with body & embodiment are encouraged to submit to this session.

Session Organizer: Cassidy Boe, Department of Sociology

Session Organizer: Torisha Khonach, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Section on Sociology of Consumers and Consumption

Consuming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Unsettled Times  

This session explores the interplay between consumption and equity in the current social and political moment.  We invite submissions that examine organizational efforts to promote, support, and maintain their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion in a context of recent mobilizing efforts like Black Lives Matter and Me Too. During the pandemic, an increasing number of brands joined a so-called “inclusion revolution” but how these efforts have connected with consumers during protracted periods of isolation remains in question. Importantly, the session seeks to uncover how pandemic-related shifts to the consumption landscape may have deepened racialized, classed, gendered, and ableist inequities (e.g., food and housing insecurity, exploitation of gig workers, environmental crisis, beauty and appearance, media). We also invite submissions exploring how consumers have responded and even mobilized directly and indirectly to challenge inequality, and/or to forge connections and build community.

Session Organizer: Kate Cairns, Rutgers University-Camden

Session Organizer: David Nicholas Pettinicchio, University of Toronto

Session Organizer: Boniface Noyongoyo, Marshall University

Session Organizer: Lauren Clingan, Princeton University

Open Topics in Consumers and Consumption Research 

This session presents an open call for research in the sociology of consumers and consumption. We invite both theoretical and empirical submissions exploring a range of issues, questions, and debates within the field.

Session Organizer: Kate Cairns, Rutgers University-Camden

Session Organizer: David Nicholas Pettinicchio, University of Toronto

Session Organizer: Lauren Clingan, Princeton University

Session Organizer: Boniface Noyongoyo, Marshall University

Section on Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Roundtables                      

Session Organizer: Kate Cairns, Rutgers University-Camden

Session Organizer: David Nicholas Pettinicchio, University of Toronto

Session Organizer: Boniface Noyongoyo, Marshall University

Session Organizer: Lauren Clingan, Princeton University

Section on Sociology of Culture

Culture and the State  

Culture is an essential aspect of the state-society relationship and of the way states govern and control. A growing sociological literature examines the role of language, symbols, meaningful practices, rituals, and religion in state processes. States are also active participants in the governance of culture, through dedicated ministries, museums, and other institutions. This panel seeks papers that examine these linkages, thinking both about the production of culture by states and the manifestations of cultural logics and practices within states. We especially welcome papers that make creative use of critical concepts and methods, including (but not limited to) cultural studies, globalization/transnational studies, and postcolonial theory. We also especially welcome papers on the full range of cases, including historical studies.

Session Organizer: Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia

Cultures of Expertise: Mediating Global Challenges   

Global crisis and challenges like the war in and against Ukraine or the covid 19 pandemic have highlighted the role of experts in mediating societal responses to social problems, while also renewing debates about how the social organization of expertise is changing.

In this context, this panel welcomes papers that apply tools and methods of cultural analysis to questions about the process of labeling expertise, about expert practices and expert communities, the institutional contexts of expertise, the content of expert knowledge, the effects and failures of expert knowledge, and/ or the technologies of expert knowledge.  Papers on experts and expertise related to the social sciences and humanities are especially welcome as are papers on the full global range of expert communities. Papers that make new theoretical or methodological connections, such as for example, between cognitively oriented cultural sociology and the sociology of expert practices are also especially welcome.

Session Organizer: Monika Christine Krause, London School of Economics

Modeling Cultures (co-sponsored by Sociology of Culture and Mathematical Sociology)       

There has been increased interest and excitement recently in identifying and using mathematical models and other formal concepts and approaches in the study of cultures and cultural practices. At the same time, there has been increasing interest among sociologists of science and knowledge in studying modeling itself as a cultural practice. This session is open to papers that develop and apply mathematical models to questions including (but not limited to) how cultures evolve, polarize, and transform social relations and how formal cultural analysis can be integrated across scales; the session is also open to papers that ask about meaningful practices among researchers and others who develop and use models, that investigate how models are interpreted, how models are different from each other and related tools, and how they do or do not travel across cultures. This session is jointly sponsored by the Sociology of Culture and the Mathematical Sociology sections.

Session Organizer: Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, University of California-San Diego

Session Organizer: Ronald L. Breiger, University of Arizona

The Sociology of Art and Art Institutions    

This session welcomes submissions that contribute to the sociology of art and art organizations. How is art labelled art and by whom? How and by whom is art (e)valuated? How do art valuations travel or how do they not travel across time and space? What is the role of local, national and transnational sponsors?  What borders does art encounter? How does judgement about art relate to other forms of valuations, such as economic or political valuation? How do forms of inequality and oppression interact with art and art institutions? How do artists and how do art institutions conceive of their social context and how do they respond to inequality and injustice (if at all)? How does art patronage vary within and across national borders? Papers that address the full range of art forms, art institution and artist communities within a US and/or within a global context are especially welcome.

Session Organizer: Patricia A. Banks, Mount Holyoke College

Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Guillermina Altomonte, New York University

Adrianna Bagnall Munson, Sarah Lawrence College

Section on Sociology of Development  

Development Perspectives from the Global South 

This session invites papers that examine the question of power and knowledge in the global south with respect to the production of colonial legacies, the impact of neocolonial interventions and colonial modernities, and resistance strategies.

Session Organizer: Enrique S. Pumar, Santa Clara University

Environment and Development

We invite papers that consider the relationship between development and the environment.  How is environmental change impacting development, including development projects, theory, and research practices? How is climate change changing how we think about development? Papers can engage with issues related to climate change or other environmental issues, from the global scale to the local level.

Session Organizer: Devparna Roy, Nazareth College

New Frontiers in Sociology of Development 

This session welcomes papers that examine the relevance of longstanding ideas in development research and what ideas from earlier generations need to be re-incorporated.

Session Organizer: Erin McDonnell, University of Notre Dame

Sociology of Development Roundtables

Session Organizer: Heidi Rademacher, SUNY-Brockport

Section on Sociology of Education

Sociology of Education Open Session    

We welcome all submissions related to the Sociology of Education.

Session Organizer: Joanne W. Golann, Vanderbilt University

Session Organizer: Emily Handsman, Northwestern University

Sociology of Education Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Emily Handsman, Northwestern University

Session Organizer: Rebecca Ann Johnson, Georgetown University

Section on Sociology of Emotions

Advancing Theory and Research on Emotions   

This open submission session provides a space for the presentation of new scholarship that furthers our understanding of theories or research in the sociology of emotions.

Session Organizer: Gretchen Peterson, University of Memphis

Section on Sociology of Human Rights

Junior Scholars’ Works-in-Progress

This session is dedicated to featuring, discussing, and supporting junior scholars’ research and writing. It is open to advanced Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows whose work falls within the aims and scope of the section.

Session Organizer: Lynette J. Chua, National University of Singapore

The Politics of Human Rights

This panel focuses on how human rights are politicized and instrumentalized. Papers could discuss how governments engage with human rights on issues of national security, the limitations and possibilities of the framework of rights in the pursuit of justice, the role of human rights in international relations, etc.

Session Organizer: Miray Hany Wadie Philips, University of Minnesota

Section on Sociology of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations

Emerging Research on the Sociology of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations Roundtables   

Roundtables for emerging research within Indigenous sociology

Session Organizer: Kimberly R. Huyser, University of British Columbia

Session Organizer: Lauren Amelia Dent, University of North Texas

Section on Sociology of Law

Global and Comparative Approaches in the Sociology of Law     

This session explores global and comparative approaches to the study of law, legality, and legal institutions, and/or the role of law in global interconnection and fragmentation. We are especially interested in papers that draw on conceptual tools built from across sociological and national traditions, and/or engage empirical research sites that offer the opportunity to think about the opportunities and limits of comparative research. We particularly welcome papers that engage with research and theorizing on law and legal institutions in contexts beyond North America.

Session Organizer: Jaimie Morse, University of California-Santa Cruz

Legality and Democratic Backsliding: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on the Rule of Law     

This session focuses on law, legal ideas, and legal institutions in the context of democratic backsliding. Papers might highlight the legal actors strategies, or organizational dynamics at play in the changes, and often weakening, of democratic procedures, rules, or norms, and in some cases the rise of authoritarianism. Papers may also highlight the effects of these disruptions on inequality and other elements of everyday life. Papers may similarly take a broader approach that connects our moment with continuities of inequality, exclusion, and violence, and the role of law and legal institutions across eras.

Session Organizer: Kyla Bourne, University of California Berkeley

Sociology of Law Open Topics Paper Session  

Session Organizer: Ron Levi, University of Toronto

Sociology of Law Roundtables     

Session Organizer: Ron Levi, University of Toronto

Section on Sociology of Mental Health

Racial-Ethnic, Sexuality, and Gender-related Disparities in Mental Health

This session will include empirical studies using multiple methods that address how mental health inequities related to race, gender, and sexuality (and more specifically, related to racism, sexism, transphobia, and homonormativity and homophobia) are created, maintained, and even reduced.

Session Organizer: Mieke B. Thomeer McBride, University of Alabama-Birmingham

Session Organizer: Myles Moody, University of Alabama-Birmingham

Social Connections and Mental Health

We welcome cutting-edge research that moves forward the age-old research tradition on social connections and mental health inequalities. Social connections are a broad concept and involve (but are not limited to) research topics on social relationships, social networks, social isolation, and loneliness.

Session Organizer: Lijun Song, Vanderbilt University

Section on Sociology of Population

Demography of Race, Ethnicity, and/or Immigration    

Sociological research on the demography of race, ethnicity, and or immigration, broadly construed.

Session Organizer: Alexis C. Dennis, McGill University

Health and Mortality 

Sociological research on the demography of health and mortality, broadly construed.

Session Organizer: Joseph T. Lariscy, University of Memphis

Reproductive Access and Control     

Sociological research on access to reproductive services and control over reproduction.

Session Organizer: Emily Smith-Greenaway, University of Southern California

Population Section Roundtables   

Submissions on all topics within the sociology of population are welcome.

Session Organizer: Paula W. Fomby, University of Pennsylvania

Section on Sociology of Religion

Moral Life and Inequality at the Intersection of Religion and Education

Schools and Religions are two of the most vital institutions in human history, especially regarding questions of moral cultivation and mechanisms of inequality. Yet their intersection is too rarely acknowledged. This panel explores what the study of schools and the study of religions have to say to each other and how their interaction might develop broader sociological conversations about moral life, culture, and inequality. How are schools—even seemingly secular schools—actually religious? How are religious locations inevitably educative? We welcome all submissions at the meeting of education and religion, with special encouragement for those that emphasize contexts outside of Christianity and/or the Global North.

Session Organizer: Jeffrey Guhin, University of California-Los Angeles

Open Session in the Sociology of Religion

We welcome all papers connected to the Sociology of Religion.

Session Organizer: Jonathan Coley, Oklahoma State University

Religion and Justice: The Transformative Power of Religion in the Criminal Legal System    

Religious groups in the United States have a lot to say – and a lot to do – when it comes to inequalities in the criminal legal system. From policing and use of force to mass incarceration and capital punishment, many religious communities and parachurch organizations have been engaged on the ground floor, working towards transformative social change. This can take many forms, from involvement in Black Lives Matter protests, to community bail fund initiatives, to decarceration efforts, to death penalty advocacy and more. We welcome papers on these and related empirical and/or theoretical explorations of religion and justice. What does religious involvement look like, and how does it vary across faith communities? What role do faith-based organizations play when working within justice-adjacent institutions? How do practitioners make sense of their activism, and how do they maintain their efforts in the face of conflict or setbacks? Broadly, how can the sociology of religion contribute to dialogues, and ultimately social change, around policing and punishment in the contemporary U.S.?

Session Organizer: Rachel Ellis, University of Maryland-College Park

Sociology of Religion Roundtables  

The Sociology of Religion section roundtable sessions are open to any paper related to the Sociology of Religion. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers leveraging any methodology. Research-in-progress, particularly by graduate students, is also welcome. Papers will be grouped based on common interests.

Session Organizer: Syed Eisar Haider, University of Notre Dame

Session Organizer: Miray Philips, University of Minnesota

Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender

Sex & Gender Open Topics   

Potential panelists are requested to submit their papers. The Sex & Gender program committee will assign selected papers to appropriate panels, for a total of five panels.

Session Organizer: Sharmila Rudrappa, University of Texas-Austin

Session Organizer: Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, Texas A&M University-College Station

Session Organizer: Erika Busse-Cárdenas, Macalester College

Session Organizer: Jordan Conwell, University of Texas-Austin

Session Organizer: Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno

Session Organizer: Sarah A. Miller, Boston University

Sex & Gender Roundtables     

The topics for our roundtables are open. The program committee will organize the presentations into specific roundtables after papers have been accepted.

Session Organizer: Sharmila Rudrappa, University of Texas-Austin

Session Organizer: Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, Texas A&M University-College Station

Session Organizer: Erika Busse-Cárdenas, Macalester College

Session Organizer: Jordan Conwell, University of Texas-Austin

Session Organizer: Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno

Session Organizer: Sarah A. Miller, Boston University

Section on Sociology of Sexualities

Abortion. Now.

This panel explores the virulent and violent effects of the fall of Roe v. Wade. How will the overturning of Roe disproportionately impact abortion access for people of color, low-income people, undocumented people, youth, and queer people? What tactics, strategies, and technologies of resistance will this moment produce? Whose stories, experiences, fears, realities, and violences are folded in and whose remain outside the legible and official archive? This panel will trace the wide-ranging sexual effects of living in this moment — sexual behavior and politics (such as shaping where young people decide to go for college), intensified digital surveillance, the link between the abortion and varying white supremacies, what US-based movements can learn from abortion activists in the Global South, and others. We encourage submissions that move away from US-based imperatives and analytics, that center decolonial and transnational analytics.

Session Organizer: Chris A. Barcelos, University of Massachusetts Boston

Session Organizer: Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Florida State University

Sticky Sexualities 

Sex and the erotic are complicated, unstable, ephemeral, and messy. Scholars of sexuality know this and often embrace the paradoxes of sexual and erotic life. And yet, there remain theoretical, methodological, and conceptual terrains of sexuality(ies) unrealized. This panel seeks contributions that explore the awkward pairings of/with sex (i.e., madness, perversity, spirituality, healing, affect, panics, war, etc.) that sociologists of sexuality have yet to contend with. We especially desire contributions that center Black, brown, Indigenous, diasporic, immigrant, queer, trans, asexual, disabled, and/or neurodivergent perspectives, narratives, commentaries, and reflections on the field’s moments, methods, and modes of stickiness. What are the tense, frictional, competing and awkward remains of the study of sex? How should or can we reorient sociology to the geographic, historical, affective, subjective, experiential, embodied, queer, trans and racialized aspects of sexualities that have been left behind, rejected, and framed as dangerous, deviant, and abject?

Session Organizer: B. Ethan M Coston, Virginia Commonwealth University

Session Organizer: Kyle Lamoin Callen, University of Oklahoma

Session Organizer: Jessie Laljer, University of Oklahoma

Section on Sexualities Roundtables   

The section on sexualities invites a broad range of papers related to sexualities for this roundtable session. We seek papers that use intersectional and transnational frames, and we especially encourage papers foregrounding the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) as well as transgender, non-binary, agender, intersex, and other gender-expansive people throughout the world.

Session Organizer: Jennifer Whitmer, California State University-Stanislaus

Session Organizer: Alicia M. Walker, Missouri State University

Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology

Alternative Teaching and Assessment Strategies: Challenges, Opportunities, and Practices  

This session incorporates content on a variety of topics related to alternative teaching and assessment practice.  We especially are interested in research on the implementation and success of novel ideas, strategies, and exercises across a range of subjects and student populations.  Tried and true practices and ideas that have been successfully implemented over time are also welcomed to be shared and discussed.

Session Organizer: Sadie R. Pendaz-Foster, Inver Hills Community College

The Dichotomy of Teaching and Research 

The pressure to “publish or perish”, the reality of work in research-intensive institutions, and requirements for retention and promotion push many faculty to direct most of their efforts toward scholarship. Faculty at teaching and service-intensive institutions often find it difficult to carve out time for research. Women and underrepresented faculty carrying disproportionate institutional service and teaching loads report making tough choices about investing their constrained resources into advancing either research, teaching goals, or extra service imposed on them. It is not surprising that faculty across institution types experience teaching and research as disconnected endeavors, conflicting priorities, and separate sources of pressure which additionally impact other aspects of their lives “outside” their work. Moreover, the increasing precarity of academic positions, erosion of shared governance, and institutional management, most recently worsened by the pandemic have decreased faculty power, autonomy, and morale. A primary place where teachers can restore their hope, faith, and will is the classroom, where the interactions between teachers and students are meaningful and inspiring. This session invites authors whose work examines the imposed dichotomy of teaching and scholarship, the consequences of this separation, and offers solutions that restore the faculty’s autonomy and control over their practices while protecting the faculty in their mission of being teacher-scholars.

Session Organizer: Hadi Khoshneviss, Rhodes College

Session Organizer: Evelyn Perry, Rhodes College

Teaching Core Courses 

Sociological Research Methods and Sociological Theory are the core requirements of the vast majority of Sociology majors.  They are also probably the two most demanding and difficult, albeit in different ways, Sociology courses to teach.  This session will focus on useful pedagogical tools for teaching Research Methods and Theory, including, but not limited to assignments, exercises, videos, lesson plans, and other resources.

Session Organizer: Evan Cooper, SUNY-Farmingdale

Teaching Sociology in Critical Times    

This session will focus on how we most effectively teach sociology in response to contested issues from the local to the global. Of primary interest are strategies for how we can adapt our most popular courses – namely Introduction to Sociology and Social Problems – with regard to changing student populations, political climates, and social inequalities. Teacher-scholars are encouraged to discuss their research, practices, and ideas related to controversial topics, public crises, emerging issues, etc. in the classroom. Foci can include teaching identity-related topics, responding to governmental censorship, navigating demands of objectivity, bridging polarized perspectives, facilitating equity within meritocratic structures, discussing emotionally charged topics, maintaining the relevancy and appeal of the discipline, and more.

Session Organizer: Matt Reid, Cabrini University

Teaching with Community    

In this session we will discuss best pedagogical practices for service/community-based learning. We will examine the difficulties in working with nonprofits and community leaders/stakeholders and the rewards that our students get from these types of courses. We will also focus on how to combine pedagogy with our partners’ needs. Papers that discuss how institutions count service based learning and/or facilitate it are also welcomed as are papers that look at the history and future of community based learning.

Session Organizer: Daina Cheyenne Harvey, College of the Holy Cross

Theory Section

Critique of the Sign  

In the decades since the cultural turn, there has been a tendency to take positions for or against “culture” and “signification” in social thought and analysis. This session aims to create a space for critiques of signification that move beyond such position-taking and thereby reconfigure the terms of debate. In what ways might we go through and beyond the sign? The resources for these critiques and reconfigurations may be found in disparate places, from the core of contemporary social science to forms of thought often relegated to the periphery. Consider, as but one example, the reassertion of myth as the basis for political modernity and the critique that the search for such founding myths actually reproduces the very position-taking it aims to transcend. Such back and forths about the status of culture occur fractally across the landscape of social thought. The goal of this session is to draw on this pluralism as the basis for productive disagreement in pursuit of new arguments about the paths through and beyond the sign in social science.

Session Organizer: Tad P. Skotnicki, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Modernities

This session examines one of sociological and political theory’s most contested terms. “Modernity,” whether understood as the site of democratic hope and self-authorship or as the source of mass conflict and genocide, links sociology not only to history but to the human sciences writ large. It has been a central term for articulating different areas of sociological study (e.g., gender and law; postcoloniality, race, and nation; violence and bureaucracy), and a basis for thinking about the experience of social acceleration and processes of capitalist accumulation in the last 500 years around the globe. It has focused thinking in sociology about states, empires and politics, and illuminated studies of agency and morality. At the same time, it has invited theorizing that is skeptical of the very term or gestures beyond the modern itself (e.g., “we have never been modern,” postmodernity, “remaking modernity”). This panel will explore how or even whether the concept of modernity can organize thinking about society and politics, past, present and future, in the sociology written in the 21st century.

Session Organizer: Ann Shola Orloff, Northwestern University

Reading the Black Atlantic after 30 years: On a Classic of Sociological Theory 

Thirty years ago, Paul Gilroy published his virtuosic work The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Published at a moment in Britain and around the world that articulated modernity as a distinctly European project, The Black Atlantic challenged the perspective that any one culture, race or nation holds claims over the production of culture, and argued that we can understand the modern Atlantic world through the interconnections, subject formations and responses to the violences of slavery. The Black Atlantic revised our view of modern culture and society through conversations with enlightenment philosophers like Hegel and Kant, sociologists like Du Bois and Hill-Collins, and musicians, artists, and writers such as John Coltrane and Richard Wright. This pillar of cultural studies, sociological theory and literary criticism was one of the first prominent texts to think against the meretriciousness of cultural nationalisms to see a different and new vision of modern Atlantic culture forged within and around the abyssal beginnings of the middle passage and the cultural formations that occurred within and on the shores of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This panel invites papers that engage with The Black Atlantic, its theoretical contributions and its methods or the wider Black Atlantic tradition that has sprung in no small part from this book.

Session Organizer: Alexandre White, Johns Hopkins University

Structure Strikes Back: Theory in Social Network Research      

The concept of social structure is a central to the sociological tradition. Social network analysis has provided at least one granular and empirically grounded way of thinking about and through the concept of structure in social and philosophical settings. The papers in this panel will explore questions about the relationship between social networks and social structure along conceptual lines. Are networks a good lens for thinking through social structure? Does thinking about networks as structures improve our understanding of social processes? Do structures require a different understanding of causality than counterfactualism? How are semiotic and cultural networks related to interactional networks, and what does it mean for two structures to interact? How can theoretical work on social structure inform social network analysis?

Session Organizer: Emily Anne Erikson, Yale University

Theory Section Roundtables 

Session Organizer: Taylor Paige Winfield, Princeton University