Special Sessions

Special Sessions focus on new areas of sociological work or other timely topics which may or may not relate to the theme. They generally address sociological issues, whether in research or its application, of importance to the discipline or of interest beyond.

Activism While the World Burns

This session brings together scholars working on activism and engagement around the issue of climate change to discuss how scholarship can inform movements, organizations, and activists.  The moderator will facilitate a discussion among experts who work on a range of issues related to climate activism, engagement, and their effects to understand what the movement can learn from the findings of sociological research. Themes will include:  What and how much have activists accomplished? In what ways is activism falling short and what are main barriers/obstacles to accomplishing more? What can researchers do to help, and what research is still needed to influence the desired social and political outcomes.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Dana R. Fisher, University of Maryland-College Park; (Presider) Dana R. Fisher, University of Maryland-College Park; (Panelist) David J. Hess, Vanderbilt University; (Panelist) Brayden G. King, Northwestern University; (Panelist) Todd Schifeling, Temple University; (Panelist) David B. Tindall, University of British Columbia

Automation, Algorithms, and the Future of Work

This panel focuses on cutting-edge trends in the social organization of work.  It addresses the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, how high-tech entrepreneurs imagine the future of work, and how workers are adapting to and resisting the encroachment of technology. They focus on the benefits and the drawbacks of automation in the workplace.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Christine L. Williams, University of Texas-Austin; (Presider) Patrick Sheehan, University of Texas at Austin; (Panelist) Aaron Benanav, Syracuse University; (Panelist) Lindsey D. Cameron, University of Pennsylvania; (Panelist) Ya-Wen Lei, Harvard University; (Panelist) Aliya Hamid Rao, London School of Economics; (Panelist) Steve Viscelli, University of Pennsylvania; (Discussant) Kathleen Griesbach, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Beyond the West: Critical and Emancipatory Sociological Pedagogies

In the last few decades, sociology in the U.S. has witnessed many critical advancements in the practices of professional and public sociology. Yet, with some few historical exceptions, one could argue that U.S. sociology has been tied to the state, axis of power and even colonialisms. Compared to the U.S., sociology has been, in many national contexts, and particularly in the global south, more closely linked to popular movements and critical pedagogies. What can we gain from these contexts? What lessons do they offer? How do they unsettle professional and even public sociology, as envisioned in the U.S.? The goal of this session is to bring some of these lessons, from diverse international sociological critical perspectives, from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Atef S. Said, University of Illinois at Chicago; (Presider) Patrisia Macias-Rojas, University of Illinois-Chicago; (Discussant) Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale University

On the Institutional Location and Routes of Knowledge Production, Anaheed Al-Hardan, Howard University

Decolonial Sociology: Lessons from South Africa, Ricado E Jacobs, University of California-Santa Barbara

Applying Ibn Khaldun: New Lessons from a Lost Tradition in Sociology, Syed Farid Alatas, National University of Singapore

Movement Texts as Anti-Colonial Theory: Lessons from Pakistan, Mahvish Ahmad, London School of Economics and Political Science

Black Youth Agency Across Social Contexts

Much of the sociological research to date on Black youth focuses on the structural challenges they face and the impact those challenges pose to their life outcomes. When studying Black youth, sociologists often miss the important ways they actively shape their social contexts, contribute to culture, and make choices within constrained realities. This special session will include papers that center how Black youth employ their social agency across institutions–such as schools, families, neighborhoods, the criminal justice system, and religious organizations. This panel will intentionally feature the research and contributions of emerging scholars in the Sociology of Black Youth. By examining their diverse lives and social agency, this session encourages sociologists to appreciate the educative power Black youth bring to our discipline.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Brittany Nicole Fox-Williams, CUNY-Lehman College; (Session Organizer) Dialika Sall, CUNY-Lehman College; (Panelist) Chantal Annise Hailey, University of Texas-Austin; (Panelist) Jennifer Etienne, University of Minnesota; (Panelist) Shaonta’ E. Allen, Dartmouth College; (Panelist) CalvinJohn Smiley, Hunter College; (Panelist) Dialika Sall, CUNY-Lehman College; (Discussant) Derron Wallace, Brandeis University; (Presider) Brittany Nicole Fox-Williams, CUNY-Lehman College

By Any Framings Necessary: Racism, Mobilization, and Futurity in Social Movements

After witnessing the persistence of white supremacy across the country, along with the various responses from the Civil Rights Movement, sociologists argued that the success of a social movement is contingent upon organizers’ ability to control the framing of their issues. As a result, the Civil Rights Movement was canonized as an exemplar of a successful movement. Yet, today’s racial social movements are still responding to the institutional, social, and political failures that the Civil Rights Movement tried to remedy. Therefore, this session is organized by the following questions: how do normative understandings of social movement behavior underestimate the durée of white supremacy? How are today’s social movements challenging the racial politics of citizenship, migration, and memories of the past? Finally, what are today’s social movements teaching us about the possibility of building alternative futures within our current landscape, as well as the attempts to thwart those efforts? This session is organized to consider the insights we can learn from responses to the Movement for Black Lives, Puerto Rican diasporic movements, the resurgence of white nationalist behavior, and the embodied practices that people deploy to build the future we need.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jelani I. Ince, University of Washington; (Presider) Jelani I. Ince, University of Washington; (Panelist) Glenn Edward Bracey, Villanova University; (Panelist) Maxine Leeds Craig, University of California-Davis; (Panelist) Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, University of California, Berkeley; (Panelist) David Cunningham, Washington University-St. Louis; (Discussant) Amber Burrell, University of Washington

Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Environmental Sociology

Public and private sector organizations alike warn of an impending climate crisis. One of the ways this crisis will be felt across the globe is via increasing climactic volatility—including more frequent and more severe disasters.  Thus, more sociological work will have to take on the issue of risk mitigation and adaptation.  This session focuses on the sociological implications of climate change, particularly on how climate-induced disasters will drive new inequalities, expose gaps in planning, and be experienced by vulnerable communities.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Timothy Haney, Mount Royal University; (Presider) Timothy Haney, Mount Royal University; (Discussant) Lori Peek, University of Colorado-Boulder

Managed Retreat in a Climate Changed World, Liz Koslov, University of California-Los Angeles

Health Disparities After Disasters and/or Inequalities in Government Assistance, Ethan Raker, University of British Columbia

The Lived Experience of Multiple, Repeated Disasters in Latin America, Maricarmen Hernandez, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque

Insuring Natural Hazards in an Era of Climate Change, Rebecca Elliott, London School of Economics

Conservative Power and Influence in Society

For decades, the sociology of conservatism was a boutique area of study in our discipline, with few focusing a lens on right-leaning phenomena. This is no longer the case, in large part because the state of democracy requires trained attention on the effects of conservatism. The panelists of this session will address how conservative thought and organizational acumen have influenced various sectors of society, with particular attention on education, movements, institutional politics, science, and religion.

(Session Organizer) Amy J. Binder, University of California-San Diego; (Presider) Amy J. Binder, University of California-San Diego; (Panelist) Jennifer L. Jennings, Princeton University; (Panelist) Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh; (Panelist) Benjamin Merriman, University of Kansas; (Panelist) Samuel L. Perry, University of Oklahoma; (Panelist) Marcus Mann, Purdue University

Contemporary and Emerging Issues in Computational Sociology

This special session will explore contemporary and emerging issues in computational sociology, a field that rests at the intersection of social science, engineering, and computer science. The growing importance of this branch of sociology extends to social network analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data mining, modelling of complex social interactions, systems theory, and the culture, organization, and group dynamics of organizations. Papers in this session will explore several of these topics as well as some of the ethical implications of the field.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, University of North Carolina-Charlotte; (Presider) Ellis Prentis Monk, Harvard University

The Power and Responsibility of Computational Sociology, Laura K. Nelson, University of British Columbia

Unequal Student Achievement in the Age of Artificial Intelligence in Labor Markets, Argun Saatcioglu, University of Kansas; Donna Ginther, University of Kansas

Extended Computational Case Method, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, University of California-San Diego

Critical Race Theory and P-16: What Should Schools Teach?

This session will examine the recent public controversy over Critical Race Theory and public education. Presenters will present papers drawing on their scholarship in p-16 education in response to the question: What should schools teach about CRT? Specifically, this session will have scholars examine the material and pragmatic impacts and effects of CRT in p-20 contexts and classrooms.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Adrienne Denise Dixson, University of Kentucky; (Presider) Adrienne Denise Dixson, University of Kentucky; (Discussant) ArCasia James-Gallaway, Texas A&M University

Can young children talk about CRT? Early Childhood and Critical Race Theory, Cory T. Brwon, The Ohio State University

Ethnic Studies as the New CRT Battle Ground in High Schools, Thandeka K. Chapman, University of California-San Diego

Who do you Believe, Me or your Lying Eyes? The False Accusations of the Radical Right, Adrienne Denise Dixson, University of Kentucky

Racial Dialogue Imperatives: Preparing High School Students to talk about race in college, Chaddrick James-Gallaway, Texas A&M University

Not if, by What? What Should Teachers Teach about CRT? Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Critical Race Theory and Political Backlash

Critical race theory has faced academic and lay criticism from its start in legal scholarship. But following former President Trump’s ban on diversity training in the federal government, anti-critical race theory fervor became a national moral panic. This session focuses on counter-narratives to politics of the anti-critical race theory backlash spreading across the US and internationally. Topics include what critical race theory is and isn’t, where it is taught, the impact of racial ignorance, the intended and unintended consequences of book bans, and why the panic has been so potent at this historic moment.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Victor E. Ray, University of Iowa; (Presider) Victor E. Ray, University of Iowa; (Panelist) Ali Meghji, University of Cambridge; (Panelist) Jennifer C. Mueller, Skidmore College; (Panelist) Antar Akari Tichavakunda, University of California Santa Barbara; (Panelist) Ted Thornhill, Florida Gulf Coast University; (Panelist) Sophia Lindner, Yale University

Democracy in Distress: Global Perspectives on 21st Century Authoritarianism

The global authoritarian tilt of the 2010s continues apace. Some scholars argue that democracy is facing its gravest threat since the 1930s. Panelists will discuss these trends from global and comparative historical perspectives, helping diagnose the political, economic, and social conditions of democratic erosion in the 21st century. They will also assess the nature and efficacy of countervailing forces, examining how local, national, and transnational actors struggle to revive substantive (as opposed to merely procedural) democracy.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Elizabeth McKenna, Johns Hopkins University; (Panelist) Ali Kadivar, Boston College; (Panelist) Dolores Trevizo, Occidental College; (Panelist) Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University-Tempe; (Presider) Elizabeth McKenna, Johns Hopkins University

Digital Media Technologies in Everyday Life

This panel will explore quotidian uses and experiences of digital media and other technologies, particularly how these aspects of everyday life are shaped by race, class, gender, and sexuality. Panelists specializing in the study of algorithms, online dating websites, social media celebrity and discourse, video games, and tech use in schools will discuss the utility of these technologies a well as the social problems they may introduce.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Florida State University; (Presider) Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Florida State University; (Panelist) Apryl A. Williams, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; (Panelist) Matt Rafalow, Google; (Panelist) Marcus A Brooks, Western Kentucky University; (Panelist) Christopher Persaud, University of Southern California

Dispatches from the Colonies: Unmasking the U.S. Empire-State

The U.S. is a (settler) colonial power, or as Moon-Kie Jung has theorized, an empire state. But it has hidden its colonies in plain sight. Rarely if ever, are sociologists and thematics from overseas colonies centered at ASA. This panel centers perspectives on sovereignty, citizenship, race, power, and inequality from current U.S. colonies, such as Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Katrina Quisumbing King, Northwestern University; (Presider) Rick Baldoz, Brown University; (Panelist) Lanny Thompson, Universidad de Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras; (Panelist) Debra Cabrera, University of Guam; (Panelist) Fernando Tormos-Aponte, University of Pittsburgh; (Panelist) Kirisitina Sailiata, Macalester College; (Discussant) Rick Baldoz, Brown University

Emotion Work: Gender, Families, and Workplaces

This session will explore the gendered dynamics, cultural beliefs, and social obligations of emotion work across a range of settings, including families and workplaces.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Sarah Damaske, Pennsylvania State University; (Presider) Jane Lankes, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center; (Panelist) Bailey A. Brown, Spelman College; (Panelist) Marianne Cooper, Stanford University; (Panelist) Miliann Kang, University of Massachusetts Amherst; (Panelist) Krystale E. Littlejohn, University of Oregon

Fighting for Inclusion: New Developments in the Struggle for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Following the Trump administration, the federal government continued in its failure to implement significant reforms inclusive of immigrants and refugees. This panel examines the evolving strategies and coalitions in struggles to demand rights for recent arrivals and more established groups.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Veronica Terriquez, University of California, Los Angeles; (Discussant) Sofya Aptekar, CUNY – School of Labor and Urban Studies; (Presider) Josefina Flores Morales, UCLA

Political Bridging and the Struggle for Immigrant Rights in Orlando, Ariana Jeanette Valle, University of California-Davis

Still Undocumented, Still Unafraid: Undocumented Immigrant Youth Activism Then and Now, Edelina M. Burciaga, University of Colorado-Denver

Refugee Rites/Rights? Examining Narratives of Vietnamese and Afghan Solidarity, Saugher Nojan, San Jose State University

Legal Violence Against Migrants Seeking Asylum in Detention, Tania Lopez DoCarmo, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Gender and Sexual Classifications

How we classify people by sex/gender and sexuality—or whether we should be classifying them at all—is contested and in a state of flux. Panelists will present research that examines this issue in various social contexts.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Abigail C. Saguy, University of California-Los Angeles; (Presider) Joss Taylor Greene, Columbia University; (Discussant) Joss Taylor Greene, Columbia University

Negotiating Gender and Sexual Variance in the United Nations, Tara Marie Gonsalves, University of California, Berkeley

“There is No Space for Us”: Cisgendered Organizations, Exclusion, and Contemporary Inequalities, Angela Jones, SUNY-Farmingdale

Hedged Out: Binary Gender, Compulsive Heterosexuality, and the Division of Labor on Wall Street, Megan Tobias Neely, Copenhagen Business School

Two-Steps Forward, One-Step Back: Empirical and Ethical Considerations in the Measurement of Sex and Gender, Laurel Westbrook, Grand Valley State University

Global Approaches to Race: Dialogues on Racism and Colonialism

Even though racism was central to colonial modernity, our perspectives on racism and colonialism have often developed in isolation from each other. This panel brings together scholars working with critical approaches to race and colonialism to interrogate these relationships. How has racism persisted beyond the formal political end to empires? How can we conceptualize racism’s local variations and diverse manifestations? While the violent imposition of the color line has led to historical and contemporary dehumanization, race has also formed the basis for solidarity, resistance and community. How can we think with this tension? And finally, what consequences do these questions have for Sociology and the social sciences at large?

Participants: (Session Organizer) Ricarda Hammer, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; (Presider) Laura Garbes, Brown University; (Panelist) Ali Meghji, University of Cambridge; (Panelist) Camilla Alice Hawthorne, University of California-Santa Cruz; (Panelist) Zophia Edwards, The Johns Hopkins University; (Panelist) Ricarda Hammer, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; (Discussant) Vilna Francine Bashi, Northwestern University

Global Queer Activism

In our historical moment, activism for LGBTQI rights, on the one hand, and political homophobia and the targeting of gender non-conforming people, on the other, are both in wide global production and circulation. Presenters in this session analyze features of LGBTQ and queer activism across borders, both within international organizations and outside of them. They analyze multi-scalar impacts of global and regional politics on the economic and social life of marginalized groups and expand ideas about how activism is constituted in everyday life.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Kristopher Velasco, Princeton University; (Session Organizer) Mignon R. Moore, Barnard College; (Presider) Kristopher Velasco, Princeton University; (Panelist) Kristopher Velasco, Princeton University; (Panelist) Evren Savci, Yale University; (Panelist) Minwoo Jung, Loyola University-Chicago; (Panelist) Tanya Saunders, University of Maryland-Baltimore County; (Discussant) Jyoti Puri, Simmons University

How Debt (Even Good Debt) Drives Inequality

Debt is most often studied as the inverse of wealth—as an absence or lack, rather than a presence. At the same time, for the past several decades taking on “good” debt (like for housing and education) has been seen as a necessary pathway for social mobility. However, scholars have begun to study the dynamics of debt in its own right, and are increasingly critiquing assumptions about “good” and “bad” debt. Researchers are also reckoning with how debt, at various levels of society, is a key tool reproducing class, race and gender inequality. This session explores debt as an emerging field in sociology and adjacent fields. Panelists will present on topics potentially including how debt products are replacing social provision and public goods; how debt products can stratify outcomes, producing both advantage and disadvantage; how debt produces power relationships; debt abolition movements; and how to study debt as an object of inquiry.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Louise Seamster, University of Iowa; (Session Organizer) Alan Aja, Brooklyn College; (Presider) Louise Seamster, University of Iowa; (Panelist) Abbye Atkinson, University of California-Berkley; (Panelist) Caleb Emmanuel Dawson, University of California Berkeley; (Panelist) Davon Norris, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Investigating the Debt World: Educational Loans, Payday Lending and Monetary Sanctions as Systems of Wealth Extraction, Raphaël Charron-Chénier, Arizona State University-Tempe; Louise Seamster, University of Iowa; Alexes Harris, University of Washington

Overdue: Improving Measurement and Assessment of Debt in Low-Income Families and Communities, – Rachel E. Dwyer, Ohio State University; Jason N. Houle, Dartmouth College; Lawrence Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Invisibilized Populations and Inequality Measurement

On the heels of local, national, and global racial and intersectional justice movements, including BlackLivesMatter, StopAAPIHate, and other communities subjected to discrimination and violence, scholars, policy makers, agency heads, and a variety of institutions across the country have expressed a renewed interest in science-driven equity-based decision-making. Yet, despite good intentions, some populations remain invisible in scholarship, research and policy priorities. Panelist will share challenges and opportunities for improving data collection and knowledge production on invisibilized populations in inequality measurements for equity use in the 21st Century.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Nancy López, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque; (Presider) Nancy López, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque

2020 Census Measurement of and Results for Race and Ethnicity Detailed Data, Nicholas A. Jones, United States Census Bureau;

Settler Colonialism Invisibilizing Indigenous Peoples in Data Collection in the US and Canada, Kimberly R. Huyser, University of British Columbia

Asian Americans and Data Equity, Van C. Tran, CUNY-Graduate Center

Considering Metrics of Racialized Capitalism among Sexual Minority Populations: Measuring Poverty & Income Inequity in Non-Heteronormative Familial Structures, Kasim Ortiz, University of New Mexico

The Politics of (In)visibility: Interrogating the Methodological Muddiness of Measurement in Race Research, Yasmiyn Irizarry, University of Texas at Austin

Legacies of Historical Racism

Numerous researchers have observed that histories of racial violence are associated with modern inequalities from White-on-Black homicide to capital punishment. Given these well-established connections, the broader public has been increasingly drawn to this scholarship with the hope of discovering insights on current race-based violence and patterns of oppression. Considering this, panelists will discuss the role of historical violence on contemporary inequalities in the United States, the necessity of redressing past wrongs as a prerequisite for racial equity, and where this research might venture next.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Ryan Gabriel, Brigham Young University-Provo; (Presider) Geoff K. Ward, Washington University-St Louis; (Panelist) Amy Kate Bailey, University of Illinois-Chicago; (Panelist) Heather Avery O’Connell, Louisiana State University; (Panelist) Michael Hughes Esposito, Washington University-St. Louis

Multiracialism Across Contexts: What We Know and What We Need to Know

One of the fastest-growing racial groups in the US is multiracial Americans. Although still a relatively small part of the population, the increase is substantial.  Americans who identified with more than one race and non-Hispanic rose from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million in 2020, a 276% increase. The changing demography of multiracial classification has critical implications for how we study race, family socialization, social relationships, and social inclusion and exclusion.  This panel brings together scholars studying multiracial individuals in multiple contexts, including family, romantic, state, and global contexts. The session will discuss how racial contexts and measurement influence our understanding of multiracial individuals. Panelists will also suggest future directions for scholarship in this area.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Patricia Louie, University of Washington; (Presider) Patricia Louie, University of Washington; (Panelist) Jenifer L. Bratter, Rice University; (Panelist) Mary Elizabeth Campbell, Texas A&M University-College Station; (Panelist) Miri Song, University of Kent; (Panelist) Hephzibah Virginia Strmic-Pawl, Manhattanville College

Muslim Americans and racialization across generations

Muslim Americans are among the most ethnically and racially diverse faith groups in the United States with a large and growing American-born population. How are ethnic and racial identities among members of this minoritized religious group reproduced across generations? This panel will explore the internal diversity among Muslim Americans and their lived experiences with racialization. It will also consider how racial projects concerning Muslim Americans are created and contested from above and below and are influenced by other intersecting social identities including class, immigrant generation, and race.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Rebecca Karam, Michigan State University; (Presider) Rebecca Karam, Michigan State University; (Panelist) Johara Suleiman, University of Minnesota; (Panelist) Saher Selod, Simmons University; (Panelist) Hajar Yazdiha, University of Southern California; (Panelist) Inaash Islam, Saint Michael’s College; (Discussant) Erik Love, Michigan State University

Open Science in Sociology

Part of maximizing the educative power of sociology is maximizing what parts of sociological work is made available and to whom. “Open science” encompasses several initiatives motivated by a spirit of making more research information accessible to more people.  The initiatives include increased access to data; make the code for projects publicly available; public archiving of materials used in data collection; means of allowing public specification of research predictions in advance; and making research papers available to everyone instead of only those with the money or affiliations for subscriptions.  By doing so, open science initiatives seek to democratize access to research, maximize the collective benefits of research, and increase confidence in the findings of studies.  To date, sociology’s enthusiasm for open science has been mixed, with lower involvement than adjacent disciplines.  This panel seeks to consider the potential benefits, reservations, challenges, and paths to greater implementation of open science in sociology.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jeremy Freese; (Presider) Jeremy Freese; (Panelist) Chris Bourg; (Panelist) Felix Elwert, University of Wisconsin-Madison; (Panelist) Dawn T. Robinson, University of Georgia; (Panelist) Colin Elman, Syracuse University

Political Determinants of Health

This panel session will discuss some of the most pressing political determinants of health in the United States, including abortion access, immunizations, policing, structural racism, housing policy, and political party ideology. The panelists will highlight recent scientific evidence on how these political determinants impact population health inequities, and how public narratives about these determinants have complicated efforts to address them. The first half of the session will consist of brief remarks from each panelist while the second half will consist of a moderated discussion among the panelists and audience. This interactive session is a terrific opportunity to engage with these stellar scholars.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jennifer Karas Montez, Syracuse University; (Presider) Jennifer Karas Montez, Syracuse University

What the Politics of Abortion Teach Us About the Politics of Healthcare, [14573365] – Sarah K. Cowan, New York University

Policing and Population Health, Michael Hughes Esposito, Washington University-St. Louis

Symbolic Politics, Politicization, and the Problems of Vaccine Access and Inequality, Jennifer Anne Reich, University of Colorado-Denver

Political Parties, Ideology, and Disparities in Health, Javier Rodríguez, Claremont Graduate University

Political Economy of Race and Racial Health(care) Disparities, Alyasah Ali Sewell, Emory University

Political Polarization

Growing partisan animosity and political polarization have become major threats to democracy in the US. This panel presents new sociological perspectives and empirical research on the past, present, and future of political polarization in the US. Presentation topics range from new approaches to analyze belief systems to experimental results from scientific mass collaborations aimed at reducing polarization.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Barum Park, Cornell University; (Presider) Barum Park, Cornell University; (Panelist) Christopher A. Bail, Duke University; (Panelist) Delia Baldassarri, New York University; (Panelist) Daniel DellaPosta, Pennsylvania State University; (Panelist) James Y. Chu, Columbia University; (Panelist) Jan Gerrit Voelkel

Precarious Employment and Worker Rights

How is precarious employment, including seasonal, temporary, subcontracted, and gig employment, affecting workers? How does precarious employment relate to intersecting social and economic inequalities, and which kinds of workers are most commonly employed in different forms of precarious employment? How can workers’ rights and labor standards be improved, and how can workers organize successfully, in the midst of and in response to, high and/or rising rates of precarity? This session brings together labor scholars to address these questions in light of their own and others’ research on workers employed in diverse industries, occupations, and geographic contexts.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Ellen R. Reese, University of California-Riverside; (Presider) Carolina Bank Munoz, CUNY-Brooklyn College

Precarious Labor, Labor Standards, and the Future of Work, Nik Theodore, University of Illinois at Chicago

Precarious Employment and Worker Rights Issues Among Day Laborers and Dairy Workers, Purser, Syracuse University

Precarious Employment and Worker Rights Issues Among Farmworking Women in California, Pruneda, UC Riverside

Immigrant Rights, Workers Rights, and Latinx Immigrant Workers in Texas, Nancy Plankey-Videla, Texas A&M University-College Station

Mobilizing Precarious Workers to Improve their Rights: Lessons from South Korea and the United States, Jennifer Jihye Chun, University of California, Los Angeles

Queer Families in the 21st Century

In this invited session, scholars discuss scholarship on diverse queer family forms and contexts under which they are created and managed. Some of this work emphasizes the complex dynamics that influence parenting, and relationships among and between partners, parental figures, and kin. Other work here considers the sociocultural forces of queer kinship that influence the quality of family of origin relationships for LGBTQ adults, as well as struggles for personal and sexual autonomy in the intimate context of family and home. The scaffolding for much of this research is organized around the persistent limitations of family law and the shifting legal landscape, as well as legal vulnerabilities for LGBTQ people and the families they build.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Rin Reczek, Ohio State University; (Session Organizer) Mignon R. Moore, Barnard College; (Presider) Mignon R. Moore, Barnard College; (Panelist) April Few-Demo, University of Georgia; (Panelist) Katie Linette Acosta, Georgia State University; (Panelist) Amy Brainer, University of Michigan-Dearborn; (Panelist) Rin Reczek, Ohio State University; (Discussant) Mignon R. Moore, Barnard College

Queer Methodologies and Theory

This panel will reflect on the ways in which we can evaluate and recalibrate our research methods in order to better understand the queer lives and communities, including but not limited to politics, movements, and topics of identity conceptualization.  Understanding that how we study, who we study, and the politics of institution and publication affect what we find and end results of knowledge production and knowledges gained, this panel hopes to critically celebrate what we have learned and suggests potentials for moving forward to uncover what traditional or conventional methods may not have found or yielded as less pertinent.

Participants: (Session Organizer) D’Lane R. Compton, University of New Orleans; (Presider) D’Lane R. Compton, University of New Orleans; (Panelist) Vrushali Patil, Florida International University; (Panelist) Danya Lagos, University of California-Berkeley; (Panelist) Jane Ward, University of California-Riverside; (Panelist) Tara Marie Gonsalves, University of California, Berkeley; (Discussant) S. L. Crawley, University of South Florida

Race and Political Trust

Surveys show that trust in government is at an all-time low as communities across the nation report losing confidence in federal, state, and even local elected officials and institutions. Yet much of the theorizing on political trust has yet to center the role of the racial state, racial domination, and racialization processes more broadly. As a result, we have yet to fully understand whether and how issues like racism, fear, and inequality configure into the way that individuals, especially those from minoritized communities, come to view the state and deem it (un)trustworthy. The panel will grapple with these issues, examining a topics as varied as legal and police distrust, Native sovereignty, and racial meaning-making, to provide insight into how political trust and state appraisals might look differently within and across ethnoracial communities.

Participants: (Session Organizer) G. Cristina Mora, University of California, Berkeley; (Presider) Julie Dowling, University of Illinois Chicago

Legal Estrangement as a Problem of Mutual Distrust, Monica Bell, Yale University

Racial State Frames and Political Distrust: Latinxs in the Trump Era, G. Cristina Mora, University of California, Berkeley

Settler Logics and Native (Mis)Trust in Contemporary Land-Grab Universities, Theresa Rocha Beardall, University of Washington

Minority Trust in Government, Cary Wu, York University

Race, Marginalization, and the Politics of Fatherhood

The theme, “The Educative Power of Sociology,” provides an opportunity to address the politics of fatherhood. In a variety of ways, low-income fathers, especially fathers of color, are harmed by state policies. The thoughtful papers in this panel draw on their recent qualitative studies to craft interventions for change. Lynn Haney uses a sociologically-inspired policy analysis of debt to support concrete reforms that could help disrupt parents’ never-ending cycles of debt. In doing so, Haney insists that when sociologists retreat from a serious analysis of legal and policy reform, we end up ceding the terrain to policymakers–thus missing the chance to use our unique insights into social life to propose inventive reforms that can actually address institutional obstacles to men’s parenting. Timothy Black calls for a movement-based political strategy to address class and racial forces of marginalization that are shaping the lives of both low-income fathers and mothers and that intensify gender distrust and mutual blame. Randles discusses how sociology can inform just and inclusive fatherhood programming and policy for socially and economically vulnerable fathers. Jennifer Randle’s proposals are based on a multi-year ethnographic study with fathers who participated in a government-funded “responsible” fatherhood program. Aasha Abdill offers interventions to address the harm of decades of bias in scholarly understandings of Black fatherhood in an urban community. A focus on sociology’s educative power allows researchers of today to move beyond the production of knowledge by engaging directly with study participants and the communities they represent in order to redress the racial biases of knowledge generation of the past. Alford Young has agreed to be the discussant for this important set of papers.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania; (Session Organizer) Timothy S. Black, Case Western Reserve University; (Presider) Saida Grundy, Boston University; (Discussant) Alford A. Young, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

The Debts of Fatherhood and the Disruptive Power of Sociology, Lynne Allison Haney, New York University

From Policy to Politics: Centering Marginal Fatherhood, S. Black, Case Western Reserve University

Education, Equity, and Essential Dads: Sociological Lessons for Fatherhood Policy and Programming, Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno

From Knowledge to Wisdom: How Can Our Research be More Useful to the Communities We Study? Aasha Abdill, Independent Scholar

Resisting Repression: Learning from Social Movements

When movements challenge oppressive institutions, authorities generally attempt to repress them. History is replete with cases where political repression has successfully impeded movement activity. However, sometimes movements can effectively resist, sustaining and even growing movements in the face of repression. In this panel, we explore and reflect on different ways indigenous, anticolonial, anti-authoritarian, and racial justice movements have effectively resisted repression to sustain challenges to oppression.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Joshua Bloom, University of Pittsburgh; (Presider) Joshua Bloom, University of Pittsburgh; (Panelist) Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, University of California, Berkeley; (Panelist) Dana M. Moss, University of Notre Dame; (Panelist) Joshua Bloom, University of Pittsburgh; (Panelist) Nick Estes, University of Minnesota

Rethinking Race in the 21st Century

How do we move toward a more transformative and complicated understanding of race in the 21st century? In keeping with the conference theme of “The Educative Power of Sociology,” this session will involve discussions of new paradigms of thinking and rethinking race – and its multivariants – in the 21st century, particularly focusing on questions of racial classification and categorization, critical race theory, Racial Europeanization, global racism and raciality, state violence, antiracism and activism, and white supremacy.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jean Beaman, University of California-Santa Barbara; (Presider) Jean Beaman, University of California-Santa Barbara; (Panelist) Ricado E Jacobs, University of California-Santa Barbara; (Panelist) Joseph Crampah Ewoodzie, Davidson College; (Panelist) Marcelle Medford, Bates College; (Panelist) Demetrius Miles Murphy, University of Southern California; (Panelist) Dorothy E. Roberts, University of Pennsylvania

Rethinking Sociology through Urban Sexualities

In the last decade, urban sexualities has exploded into a dynamic subfield of sociological inquiry as scholars spotlight the diverse spatial expressions of LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.  This session brings together some of the foundational scholars in this area to consider the state of urban sexualities within sociology.  Panelists will draw on their current research to reflect on the evolution and trajectory of urban sexualities scholarship, what urban sexualities reveals about the evolution of sociological debates in the twenty-first century and its value to sociology as we reckon with decolonizing and diversifying the discipline more broadly.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Theo Greene, Bowdoin College; (Presider) Theo Greene, Bowdoin College; (Panelist) Japonica Brown-Saracino, Boston University; (Panelist) Amy L. Stone, Trinity University; (Panelist) Ryan Centner, London School of Economics; (Panelist) Anthony Christian Ocampo, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; (Discussant) Theo Greene, Bowdoin College

Revisiting and Envisioning Black Feminist Sociology

In 2021, Luna and Pirtle wrote that they understand “Back feminist sociology epistemology as a framing orientation that is inclusive and vast, but finds ground in its reflexivity, community centeredness and intentional praxis.” Though Black Feminist Sociology (BFS) has been at the center of sociological thought and praxis since its inception, it is often marginalized within the field. This panel will discuss the roots and futures of Black Feminist Sociology in and for sociology. Questions explored include: What does a Black feminist sociological future look like? Where can BFS take us? How can we get there? What interventions are needed in academic spaces to center BFS? Can BFS make sociology more loving and/or more transformative? And, how might we integrate BFS into our everyday praxis? Panelists will speak from their experiences and from their expertise, spanning the areas of intersectionality, movements, reproductive justice, digital sociology, and health and well-being.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Whitney Nicole Laster Pirtle, University of California-Merced; (Presider) Whitney Nicole Laster Pirtle, University of California-Merced; (Panelist) Zakiya Luna, Washington University-St. Louis; (Panelist) Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland – College Park; (Panelist) Melissa Brown, Santa Clara University; (Panelist) Maria S. Johnson, Black Women and Girls Fund

Rose Series Special Session: Overcoming the Odds: The Benefits of Completing College for Unlikely Graduates, by Jennie E. Brand (Russell Sage Foundation 2023)

Yearly, millions of high school students consider whether or not to attend college. For some, the path is clear. They performed well at advantaged schools and their high-earning parents attended college. For others, the path is less clear. Their non-college educated parents have low incomes. Disadvantaged in poorly resourced schools, their academic performance may have suffered and they wonder whether college is worth the costs.

Much social scientific literature suggests that college degrees yield far-reaching benefits. Yet, critics question whether all students benefit from completing college. In Overcoming the Odds, Jennie Brand argues that disputes about college fail to consider what is required to speak knowledgeably about the benefits. What would a person’s life look like had they not completed college? What is the college counterfactual? Only when we identify life outcomes in the absence of degrees can we accurately describe their benefits. Brand argues that individual counterfactual pathways vary considerably. Using an array of long-term outcomes associated with college completion, Brand provides a holistic view on college’s transformative effects on life outcomes.

From two cohorts of nationally representative data, Brand uses matching and machine learning methods to estimate college completion effects across students with varying likelihoods of completing four-year degrees. To contextualize the findings, she describes matched vignettes of college and non-college graduates. Brand shows that college completion enables underprivileged graduates to increase wages and household income, avoiding unemployment, low-wage work, poverty, and social assistance. Benefits are larger for disadvantaged than for advantaged students, rendering discourse that college has limited benefits for unlikely graduates as flawed. Brand shows that, greater long-term earnings, and less job instability and high levels of volunteering indicate that public investment in higher education for disadvantaged students yields collective benefits. It is better for our society when more people complete college.

Participants:  (Session Organizer) Joanna Dreby, SUNY-Albany; (Presider) Aaron Major, University at Albany, SUNY; (Panelist) Jennie E. Brand, University of California-Los Angeles; (Panelist) Siwei Cheng, New York University; (Panelist) Michael Hout, New York University;  (Panelist) Florencia Torche, Stanford University

Rural Invisibility and the Implications for Inequality

The scholarly representation of the rural experience has been relatively homogeneous compared to how social scientists discuss the urban and increasingly the suburban existence. Although in the past decade, popular and scholarly interests in rural communities–and their influence on the United States political orientation and national identity–have increased, these narratives have increasingly rendered the lived experiences of a large portion of the rural community seemingly invisible. This special session will focus on cutting-edge research illuminating the experiences, beliefs and/or identities of less-talked-about rural individuals and communities–people of color, sexual and gender minorities, foreign-born individuals, undocumented laborers, and indigenous groups. Additionally, the session will highlight whether on-going economic and political crises in the United States have different consequences for rural communities and populations. In doing so, we highlight the unique burdens and opportunities rural communities and their residents face.  The goal of this session is to provide an educational dialogue about rural identities and experiences that challenges how contemporary sociology understands rurality. By exploring the compounding role of place in shaping inequalities, this session enhances sociology’s responsiveness to the study of social forces affecting identities and experiences across both rural and urban communities.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jasmine L. Whiteside, University of Louisville; (Session Organizer) Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Drexel University; (Presider) Meaghan Mingo, Cornell University

Seeking Refuge: The Creation of Vulnerable Labor Markets in Rural Spaces, Annabel Ipsen, University of Oklahoma

Rurality, Race/Ethnicity, and a Sense of Belonging in College Spaces, Jasmine L. Whiteside, University of Louisville

Abandonment and Action in Rural Sacrifice Zones, Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Drexel University

Rural Vibes: Blackness, Aesthetics, and Placemaking in the Rural South, Corey Javon Miles, Tulane University

Discerning Safety: Latinx, Black, and Marshallese Young Adults in Northwest Arkansas, Maria Andrea Escobar, University of California-Merced

School Safety at a Crossroads:  Can Schools’ Responses to the Latest “Safety Crisis” Protect Students without Promoting Inequality?

Horrific school massacres in recent years in Parkland, FL and Uvalde, TX have renewed public concerns about school violence and demands for action. They have also highlighted failures of school police to protect students and reinforced calls from various advocates and scholars for therapeutic and restorative alternatives to school securitization, exclusion, and policing. Yet, the demand for quick and common-sense action often leads to an expansion of the latter, problematic approaches. The four panelists, representing two disciplines, bring four distinctive perspectives to bear on these tensions.  Collectively, the panel will examine to extent to which police failures in Parkland and Uvalde along with the March for Our Lives and Black Lives Matter movements have reframed the terms of the school safety debate and shifted policy trends. The panel will discuss how school police can criminalize and marginalize minority students and can disrupt the very social patterns that can help prevent violence. Yet, evidence also suggests ways that school policing can promote school safety.  For example, threat assessments, when relying on valid data analysis rather than fear can protect students without disproportionately harming minority students.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Paul Hirschfield, Rutgers University; (Presider) Paul Hirschfield, Rutgers University; (Panelist) C.J. Pascoe, University of Oregon; (Panelist) Anthony A. Peguero, Arizona State University; (Panelist) Dewey Cornell, University of Virginia; (Panelist) Paul Hirschfield, Rutgers University

Shifting Sands: Racial Classifications and Boundaries in the United States

Ongoing demographic change in the U.S. is a prime contributor to the social construction of racial categories. Racial boundary work becomes ever more complex, with consequences for inequalities of every stripe. Much of this racial positioning involves groups not traditionally imagined in longstanding taxonomies, like those of mixed, Latinx, South Asian, Middle Eastern, or North African descent. This panel brings together scholars who investigate where and how we draw racial lines.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Ann J. Morning, New York University; (Presider) Ann J. Morning, New York University

Gendered Racial Schemas: Gender Contestations, Ethnic Nationalisms, and Intersectional Identity Choice at the Black/Asian Boundary, Anjanette Chan Tack, University of Chicago

The Commodification of Place and Race: Gentrification and Gente-fication in Latinx Los Angeles, Alfredo Huante, University of California, Los Angeles

Ethnic Options? Navigating Racial Boundaries in Cosmetic Surgery, Alka Menon, Yale University

Racial Boundaries and Conditional Belonging: An Examination of Racial Flexibility in the US and Cultural Malleability in Germany, Sahar Sadeghi, Muhlenberg College

Sociology and Sociologists in a Global Context

Debates on the status of “global sociology” have animated parts of the discipline for at least the last three decades, posing a series of important questions about the status of knowledge, particularity and generalizability, and conditions of knowledge production.  Most recently, questions have converged on the status of Global South as an analytic category, reflexivity and epistemic privilege, and the project of decolonizing the discipline.  What has remained somewhat out of view, however, are questions about the practice of sociology itself in different global contexts as understood by sociologists in those contexts.  This invited moderated panel discussion is a dialogue between prominent sociologists working in different contexts outside of the English-speaking North Atlantic, but who have some relationship to it.  We will discuss not only how current critical concerns about the globalizing the discipline are understood from their vantage points, but how the realities of the practice of sociology differ.  We will address disciplinary boundaries, relationships to policy and politics, and relationship to the English-speaking core.  Panel discussants will include sociologists from Global South (Africa, Latin America, and South Asia) and Global North (Scandinavia and Southern Europe).

Participants: (Session Organizer) Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University; (Presider) Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University; (Panelist) Eeva Luhtakallio, University of Helsinki; (Panelist) Patrick Le Gales, Sciences Po Paris; (Panelist) Luciana de Souza Leão, University of Michigan; (Panelist) Rajeesh Veera, Georgetown University

Sociology from Within

In 1903, WEB Dubois asked his famous question:  How does it feel to be a problem? Amalgamating the ontological (be) with the affective (feel), this Duboisian query animated a litany of scholarly conversations on race, intimacy and world-making. One hundred and twenty years later, in a moment marked by a global fascism and its naked violence of misogyny, capitalism, and racism, we propose an intimate reading of feeling race/d. Thinking of intimacy as “sticky” affect (Sara Ahmed) and race as a “shattering” negation (Frantz Fanon), this session seeks to go inside the subject, towards the lushness or lacunas of racial/ized interiorities, sensations, visceralities, and feelings. Paying close attention to the varying distinctions, depths, slippages, ambiguities, instabilities, and stakes when race and intimacy are unfolded together, speakers will explore how the intimate – sexual, social, psychic – is central to racialized being and be/longing. Naming such reading a sociology from within, panelists offer a deviant pedagogy of lived knowledge and university conditions, attending to complex power relations, institutional practices, and racialized intimacies as they flash up in their intensity and liquify in their retreat. Such a sociology demands a theorization that is often, and perhaps inevitably, genre-bending, and in so doing, panelists gesture to and entwine with sociological form just as they, too, reveal its afflictions, its limitations, and its failures.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Moon Charania, Spelman College; (Presider) Moon Charania, Spelman College; (Panelist) Mary Romero, Arizona State University; (Panelist) Ghassan Moussawi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; (Panelist) Victoria Reyes, University of California-Riverside; (Panelist) Chris A. Barcelos, University of Massachusetts Boston; (Panelist) Moon Charania, Spelman College

Sociology of Medicine and Global Epidemics

Over the past few years, the impact of COVID-19 has been felt around the world. Millions have been personally affected through illness and death of loved ones, and social institutions like work, healthcare, and national and global politics have been transformed. The sociology of medicine offers unique insights on global epidemics. For instance, analyzing the organizational structure of public health institutions, public perceptions of vaccines, and the ways that social and environmental conditions shape the spread of disease are key to understanding the causes and consequences of global epidemics and to potentially mitigating future harms. As we enter into a “post-pandemic” phase of COVID-19, the impact of this global epidemic, as well as of other ongoing epidemics like HIV/AIDS, continues to unfold and raises important questions to consider moving forward. To what extent are international and national public health institutions prepared for preventing and managing epidemics? How do we make sense of rising mistrust in these institutions? How do environmental conditions, which are increasingly impacted by climate change, affect the emergence and spread of disease? How do epidemics impact the most marginalized, and to what extent can these moments be leveraged for social change and justice? This session will bring together scholars who have studied global epidemics in different ways and across different contexts, sharing the lessons learned and offering insights for future directions on this topic in the sociology of medicine. The session will also highlight scholarship that speaks across different levels of society to show the connections between transnational organizations, government and national institutions, and providers and patients on the ground.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Amy Zhou, Barnard College; (Presider) Amy Zhou, Barnard College; (Panelist) Kelly Austin, Lehigh University; (Panelist) Gowri Vijayakumar, Brandeis University; (Panelist) Claire Laurier Decoteau, University of Illinois-Chicago; (Panelist) Joseph A. Harris, Boston University

Technology, Media, and Just Futures

From historic R&D bills like the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act to Crypto mandates, misinformation mandates, and attempts to control the Metaverse, America’s leadership is struggling with the relationship between technology, media, and society. This panel will examine key issues, processes, and challenges to engendering equity and justice.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Catherine Bliss, Rutgers; (Presider) Catherine Bliss, Rutgers; (Panelist) Janet Vertesi, Princeton University; (Panelist) Shobita Parthasarathy, University of Michigan; (Panelist) Santiago José Molina, Northwestern University; (Panelist) Oliver E. Rollins, University of Washington

The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Inequality Intensifier

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only reflected existing inequalities — by nation, race, class, gender, and disability, among other dimensions — but has in many ways amplified them. This panel will consider the relationship between the pandemic’s health and mortality toll and social inequality from many different angles, including how this relationship has evolved over the pandemic’s course; where this relationship has been challenged through policy or social mobilization, and where further challenges might emerge; and how core health and economic inequalities stand years into the spread of SARS-COV-2 around the world compared to the “before times.”

Participants: (Session Organizer) Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; (Presider) Kate Hee Choi, Western University; (Panelist) Aashish Gupta, Harvard University; (Panelist) Andrew Stokes, Boston University; (Panelist) Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; (Panelist) Jessica Calarco, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Enduring Challenges and New Possibilities for Qualitative Methodologies

While always central to the sociological enterprise, qualitative research is undergoing a renaissance on several levels. In addition to a burgeoning number of influential qualitative studies across a wide range of substantive areas, a host of recent books has addressed the longstanding challenges and new possibilities facing qualitative researchers. This session will consider these exciting developments by convening a panel of authors who have recently published books on cutting-edge methodologies for designing, conducting, analyzing, and evaluating qualitative studies. Drawing on their varied insights about the current state of and future prospects for qualitative research, the panel will address the major challenges facing contemporary ethnographers and in-depth interviewers and, in doing so, consider both points of agreement and contention about how to codify a set of rigorous standards to guide current and future qualitative researchers.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Kathleen Gerson, New York University; (Presider) Kathleen Gerson, New York University

The Science and Art of Interviewing, Sarah Damaske, Pennsylvania State University; Kathleen Gerson, New York University

Qualitative Literacy, Jessica McCrory Calarco, Indiana University-Bloomington; Mario Luis Small, Columbia University

Listening to People, Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania

Data Analysis in Qualitative Research, Stefan Timmermans, University of California-Los Angeles; Iddo Tavory, New York University

The Intersection of Race and Class Identities

Race and class intersections shape patterns of racial/ethnic identification, but they also shape mobility, feelings of belonging, and connections to ethnoracial communities. This panel will investigate these processes as well as the mechanisms—such as political rhetoric, media, policy actions, and experiences with discrimination—that affect race and class identities. The panelists will draw on their respective research to discuss variations in identities paying attention to gender, nativity, national origin, race, and immigrant generation, and how race and class intersections affect interclass and intra-ethnic relationships and access to power both within and outside ethnoracial communities. The panelists will also discuss new theoretical and empirical tools to research and analyze race and class intersections.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Jody Agius Vallejo, University of Southern California; (Presider) Jody Agius Vallejo, University of Southern California; (Panelist) Glenda M. Flores, University of California Irvine; (Panelist) Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, University of Oregon; (Panelist) Hyeyoung Kwon, Indiana University-Bloomington; (Panelist) Orly Clerge, University of California-Davis; (Panelist) Adia M. Harvey Wingfield, Washington University-St. Louis

The Long Tail of COVID

COVID-19 has impacted humans and their communities in ways that was previously unthinkable. This panel brings together papers that focus on the long term global impact of the pandemic on human behaviors in relation to: risk, public perception of infection and acceptable public reaction for action; participation in public protests; new interpretations of migrant precarity and privilege (or lack of); how gig workers in essential frontline work (food and medicine delivery) are reassessing their precarious risky occupations where social distancing is impossible; social and intimate relationships, and impact on health; and how COVID-19 has affected prisoners, correctional staff and larger community. The panel will bring together research across the globe, with a strong emphasis on intersectional analysis that includes research across class and race.

Participants: (Session Organizer and Presider) Soma Chaudhuri, Michigan State University

Public Protest Participation during a Pandemic: How risk assessment shape human behaviors and commitment to collective action, Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Michigan State University

How has the pandemic impacted work-life balance among higher skilled Indian immigrants in USA, Soma Chaudhuri, Michigan State University; Elizabeth Chacko, George Washington University; Paromita Sanyal, Florida State University

Long covid on precarious and gig-based workers, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

The Mechanisms of Racial Hierarchy

In this panel, scholars of racial inequality will discuss their research on the structural, organizational, and interpersonal dynamics that produce racial hierarchies.  Focusing on mechanisms at multiple levels (e.g., macro, meso, micro) these scholars will outline the kinds of research they and others are doing to identify current mechanisms of inequality and how we might use these insights to advance changes in policy, practice, institutional forms, or resource distribution to advance racial justice in their domain of study.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Amanda Evelyn Lewis, University of Illinois-Chicago; (Panelist) Monica C. Bell, Yale University; (Panelist) Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University; (Panelist) Tyson H. Brown, Duke University; (Panelist) Louise Seamster, University of Iowa; (Panelist) Tyrone A. Forman, University of Illinois at Chicago; (Presider) Charles A. Gallagher, La Salle University

The Minority Fellowship Program (MFP): Celebrating Fifty Years of Impact

For nearly fifty years, ASA’s Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) has supported minority scholars in sociology in their research and pursuit of the PhD. In doing so, the program has transformed our discipline, the academy, and the scientific workforce. The program has supported more than 460 fellows, many of whom have become leaders in the academy and beyond. Former Fellows, each representing one decade of the MFP, will discuss the impact of the program on their professional careers, their respective areas of research, the discipline of sociology, and society more broadly.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Heather M. Washington, ASA; (Presider) Heather M. Washington, ASA; (Panelist) C. Matthew Snipp, Stanford University; (Panelist) Cecilia Menjivar, University of California-Los Angeles; (Panelist) Bridget Goosby, University of Texas-Austin; (Panelist) Deadric T. Williams, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; (Panelist) Emerald Nguyen

The New Sociology of Housing: Precarity, Policy and Place

Recent social and economic events have brought needed attention to the struggle of millions of Americans to find, keep, and pay for housing. Yet, the sociological study of housing itself has traditionally been subsumed within such research focused on neighborhoods, residential mobility, economic sociology, or urban theory. However, an exciting and fast-growing new sociology of housing is filling the gaps in our understanding of housing precarity and housing policy. This session will feature papers by scholars who focus on: the measurement and definition of housing precarity and insecurity; new ways of identifying the causes of housing precarity; the mechanisms connecting housing precarity to social and racial inequality; situating housing precarity within stratified geographies and institutional settings; sociological approaches to studying housing policies.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Stefanie Ann DeLuca, Johns Hopkins University; (Presider) Stefanie Ann DeLuca, Johns Hopkins University; (Panelist) John N. Robinson, Princeton University; (Panelist) Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, Washington University-St. Louis; (Panelist) Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky; (Panelist) Claire W. Herbert, University of Oregon; (Panelist) Laura M. Tach, Cornell University

The Pandemic and the Culture and Meaning of Work

The COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous reverberations in the labor market, which varied across sectors, regions, and over time.  In some sectors, workers experienced a massive surge in layoffs and furloughs. Many workers experienced an abrupt shift in fundamental dimensions of work such as working from home rather than commuting to a workplace. Those who could not work from home often experienced elevated workplace health risks during the pandemic. Alongside these other changes, researchers observed what has been termed a “great reshuffling” where many workers changed their job priorities and professions. Motivated by these broad and sweeping changes, the papers in this session will explore the way that COVID-19 has changed the meaning, culture, and future of work.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Kristen S. Harknett, University of California-San Francisco; (Presider) Kristen S. Harknett, University of California-San Francisco; (Discussant) Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“I never thought I was good enough to work a 9-to-5:” The Impact of Covid-19 on the Careers of Gig-Based and Precarious Workers, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Covid-19 and the Future of the Healthcare Workforce, LaTonya Trotter, University of Washington

How Career Coaches help Clients Navigate Professional Uncertainty, Aliya Hamid Rao, London School of Economics

COVID, Intersectional Inequalities, and Persisting Neoliberal Logics in Faculty Work, Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Ethel L. Mickey, California State University San Bernardino

The Politics of Racial Diversity Initiatives in U.S. Higher Education

Racial diversity initiatives in U.S. higher education run the gamut from affirmative action in student admissions to celebratory festivals, from specialized trainings to cluster hiring of BIPOC faculty. Some of these interventions have demonstrably changed campus demographics and culture, especially at historically White elite institutions. However, they are deeply comprised. They foremost serve universities’ organizational interests in maintaining racist status quo power dynamics. By design, they protect White and elitist institutional spaces, both normatively and structurally, and forestall power-sharing and full access to resources for people of colour. At the same time, almost since their inception, such initiatives have been targeted by reactionary conservative opposition grounded in White supremacy – attacks that have become more extreme with the current rise of fascism and authoritarianism. These political attacks put those who want to create more radical change in a position of defending modest, insufficient policies and programs. This moderated discussion with top scholars in the field, organized as a Q&A, will explore these complex dynamics.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Ellen Berrey, University of Toronto; (Presider) Ellen Berrey, University of Toronto; (Panelist) Laura Theresa Hamilton, University of California-Merced; (Panelist) Veronica M. Lerma, University of California, Davis; (Panelist) Nancy López, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque; (Panelist) David John Luke, University of Michigan-Flint; (Panelist) Wendy Leo Moore, Texas A&M University-College Station

The Politics of Solidarity: Coalitions, Community, and Conflict

While sociology often critiques social forces generating discord and division, it also identifies points of connection across social groups with diverse interests, access to resources, and social positions. The facilitation of interracial coalitions among, for example, the working class toward economic justice is one pertinent example. In a time of multiple escalating and intersecting social crises, intergroup solidarity and coalition formation are vital to combating oppression and social problems. Accordingly, in this panel, we explore strategies and challenges of coalition format and intergroup solidarity in political organizing, collective action, and community change work.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Michael Rosino, Molloy College; (Presider) Michael Rosino, Molloy College; (Panelist) Betsy Leondar-Wright, Lasell College; (Panelist) Nella Van Dyke, University of California-Merced; (Panelist) Candice C. Robinson, University of North Carolina-Wilmington; (Panelist) Michael Rosino, Molloy College

The Power of LGBTQ Youth: What Their Lives and Resistance Teach Us About Social Change

This session highlights lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth as social actors, exploring how the youth resist heteronormativity, the gender binary, white supremacy, settler colonialism, and other structures of oppression. Through centering how LGBTQ youth exert power in shaping their social worlds, this panel discusses what the lives of LGBTQ youth can tell us about social change and what still needs to be done to make for a better tomorrow.

(Session Organizer) Brandon Andrew Robinson, University of California-Riverside; (Presider) Brittney Miles, University of Cincinnati; (Panelist) Bianca Wilson, Williams Institute, University of California-Los Angeles; (Panelist) Mario Suárez, Utah State University; (Panelist) Cindy Cruz, University of Arizona; (Panelist) Brandon Andrew Robinson, University of California-Riverside; (Panelist) Theo Greene, Bowdoin College

The Structure of Racism: Innovative Approaches to the Measurement of Racism

More attention has been given to the systemic factors that account for racial inequality. Much of this attention is due to the increasing attention given to the perduring inequities found in disparate areas such as education, housing, health care, and health care, police encounters, and criminal and juvenile justice.  Despite these increased calls, it is not clear what is meant by systemic factors nor how to measure them. This panel presents different and innovative approaches to the measurement of structural racism that can inform current and future research that can lead to social and policy change.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Hedwig Lee, Washington University-St. Louis; (Presider) Hedwig Lee, Washington University-St. Louis; (Discussant) Margaret Hicken, University of Michigan

Studying Racism in a Colorblind Society, Beaman, University of California-Santa Barbara

Structural Racism & Survey Research: Matching Theory to Measurement and Methods, Courtney E. Boen, University of Pennsylvania

Conceptualizing and Measuring Racial Regimes for Analysis in Inequality, Regina S. Baker, University of Pennsylvania

Theory-driven Approaches to the Operationalization of Racism across Societal Domains, Tyson H. Brown, Duke University

Transmasculinity, Transfemininity and Race in Society

This panel features critical, interdisciplinary scholarship connected to trans and queer studies. Some work looks historically at transgender narratives and identity conceptualizations in historical and global contexts, always interrogating at the intersections of race and trans statuses. We spend a good amount of time thinking about categories and meaning in different cultural contexts. We also analyze how queer and transgender bodies shape, are shaped, and are surveilled by institutions and technologies of race, gender, transnationality, medicalization, and political economy.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Mignon R. Moore, Barnard College; (Presider) Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, American University; (Panelist) Vaibhav Saria, Simon Fraser University; (Panelist) Ash Stevens, University of Illinois-Chicago; (Panelist) Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, American University; (Discussant) C. Riley Snorton, University of Chicago

Urban Histories

Much of urban sociology focuses on the contemporary conditions of cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods.  But regardless of whether urban sociologists are studying gentrification, segregation, redevelopment, work, social movements, or cultural narratives, the historical legacies of investments, policies, and people that came before influence the contemporary conditions.  This session brings together perspectives that demonstrate why history is essential for urban studies of any time period, topic, geographic area, scale of analysis, and methodological approach.  While the panelists all present on urban topics, their presentations will also demonstrate the utility of urban histories and the context of place and space for studies of culture, social movements, and work.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, SUNY-Albany; (Presider) Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, SUNY-Albany

50 years of integration: The Fate of Racially Transitioning Neighborhoods in the Post Civil Rights Era, Lance Freeman, Columbia University

Insidious Cities: From Urban Renewal to Urban Revitalization, Teresa Irene Gonzales, Loyola University-Chicago

Day Laborers as Place-Makers: Rethinking the Plight of Informal Workers, Juan Carlos Herrera, UCLA

Sweat Equity and the Right to the City: Tenant Organizing against Urban Decline in Central Brooklyn, Amaka Camille Okechukwu, George Mason University

Erasing History to Justify Displacement: How the News Media Punishes Black Neighborhoods for Systemic Racism, Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, SUNY-Albany

Voting in the U.S. and Globally – Rights, Practices, and Meanings

Voting is a durable ritual of politics in the United States and around the world. It is the principal way most citizens exercise voice in politics – even though most citizens correctly recognize their individual votes carry little weight. The papers in this session will examine the practices, systems, and organizations of inclusion and exclusion around voting. They will consider the social, cultural, and political constraints on voting and the ways voting behavior responds to these constraints.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Andrew J. Perrin, Johns Hopkins University; (Presider) Andrew J. Perrin, Johns Hopkins University; (Discussant) Brian Steensland, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

What’s Wrong With Those People? How Analyst Positionality Informs Interpretation of Political Struggles, Musa al-Gharbi, Columbia University

Missing Voices: Inequalities in US Political Participation, Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore College

Far Beyond Classic Colorblindness: The New Divide(s) in Racial Rhetoric among White Liberals and White Conservatives in the Contemporary U.S., Enid Logan, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Laura Mandeville Gilbertson, University of Minnesota

Dangerous Speech and Democratic Institutions, Sarah Sobieraj, Tufts University

What Does a Global Sociology Look Like Today?

What does a Global Sociology look like today? How do we rely on the “global” as a useful unit of analysis while avoiding both essentialism and determinism? How well do we incorporate critical perspectives and the intersectionality of race, gender, and class into global sociology? How might a discussion of national contexts and border-crossings shift our understanding of globally constitutive forces of oppression, solidarity and resistance? How well do we integrate into “global sociology” new theoretical insights in the fields of post-colonial and Du Bosian sociology? In this panel, sociologists of the “global” discuss the kind of global sociology they and others do and how they do it in light of these questions and related challenges.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Nitsan Chorev, Brown University; (Presider) Nitsan Chorev, Brown University; (Panelist) Jason L Ferguson, University of California-Los Angeles; (Panelist) Katrina Quisumbing King, Northwestern University; (Panelist) Monika Christine Krause, London School of Economics; (Panelist) Jordanna Chris Matlon, American University; (Panelist) Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, University of Southern California

What Have We Learned from COVID-19? Reimagining Paid Work

The COVID-19 pandemic fostered a new understanding of the difficulties workers face in managing the work/family/personal life interface, spawning a reimagination about where, when, and how paid work can be accomplished. We have witnessed enormous changes such as a massive move to and subsequent away from remote/hybrid work for those who could do so. There is also growing interest in workforce innovations such as the four day workweek. Meanwhile, frontline and marginalized workers still bear the great brunt of labor market risk, with structural racism, sexism, and classism constraining their ability to take full advantage of the opportunities opened up by the pandemic. In this session, two panelists will explore how the pandemic-precipitated new ways of working—including remote/hybrid work (Fan) and four day work week (Schor)—shape workers’ work conditions, job attitudes, and subjective well-being. Kelly will focus on frontline workers, introducing a participatory workplace intervention in U.S. fulfillment centers that aims to improve work environment as well as presenting early pre-intervention findings. Petts and Carlson will discuss whether and how the pandemic has shaped gender disparities in paid and unpaid work, and Abad will explore how race remains “the constant in the organization of work.” Collectively, this highly interactive panel session, moderated by Moen, brings together scholars who have been at the forefront of studying the contours and futures of paid work. The data they have collected before and/or during the pandemic will enrich our understanding regarding the enduring inequalities in paid work, but also possible practices to create inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Participants: (Session Organizer) Wen Fan, Boston College; (Presider) Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Disparities around Changing Job Conditions when Remote/Hybrid or Returning to Working at Work, Wen Fan, Boston College; Phyllis Moen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The Future of Work and Wellbeing in Warehouses: Interrogating Risks and Possibilities, Erin Kelly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Alexander Kowalski, Cornell ILR School; Yaminette Diaz-Linhart, Brandeis University; Kristen Siebach, MIT

The Four Day Week and the Future of Work: Evidence from Global Trials, Juliet B. Schor, Boston College; Wen Fan, Boston College; Orla Kelly, University College Dublin

Gender Disparities in Paid and Unpaid Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Richard J. Petts, Ball State University; Daniel L. Carlson, University of Utah

Bringing Race Back In: The Constant in the Organization of Work, Melissa Victoria Abad, Stanford University