W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award

Selection Criteria

This award honors those ASA scholars who have shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline. The body of lifetime work may include theoretical and/or methodological contributions. The award selection committee is particularly interested in ASA members whose work substantially reorients the field in general or in a particular subfield.

Nomination Procedures

Nominations must include a letter of nomination, a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae and five to seven letters of recommendation from a variety of individuals able to speak to the qualifications of the nominee. The person making the nomination should obtain this material and forward it to the committee, with the nominee’s curriculum vitae, as a package.

In addition to the nomination materials described above, complete and submit the required nomination form.

Nominations can be considered for five years, but they are not automatically renewed. Each year, nominators will be asked if they wish to renew their nominations for consideration. If a renewal is requested, nominators will be invited to submit updated information or additional materials and are required to respond again to the ethics question.

Self-nominations are encouraged. All awardees must be current ASA members at the time of the award ceremony at the Annual Meeting.  One need not be a member to be nominated for an award. All nominators must be current members. Please also be aware of ASA’s ethics disclosure and award revocation policies.

Submit nominations for the 2024 award to [email protected] by January 1, 2024.

2024 Selection Committee Members

The selection committee is composed of nine members, each serving a staggered three-year term. Members are appointed from among the Association membership by the Council based on the recommendation of the Committee on Committees.

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes, Chair
Kathleen M. Blee
Sasha R. Drummond-Lewis
Steven Epstein
Julian Go
Verna M. Keith
Jyoti Puri
Raka Ray
Natasha Warikoo

Past Recipients

2023    Viviana A. Zelizer

2022    Mary Romero

2021    Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

2020    Aldon Morris

2019    Harvey L. Molotch

2018    Elijah Anderson

2017    Patricia Hill Collins

2016    Glen H. Elder, Jr.

2015    John W. Meyer

2014    William Julius Wilson

2013    Joe R. Feagin

2012    William Gamson

2011    Harrison C. White

2010    Alejandro Portes

2009    Sheldon Stryker

2008    Barbara Reskin

2007    Joseph Berger

2006    Herbert Gans

2005    Charles Tilly

2005    Charles Willie

2004    Arthur Stinchcombe

2003    Immanuel Wallerstein

2002    Gerhard E. Lenski

2001    William Foote Whyte

2000    Seymour Martin Lipset

1999    Dorothy E. Smith

1998    Howard S. Becker

1997    William Hamilton Sewell

1996    Peter M. Blau

1995    Leo Goodman

1994    Lewis A. Coser

1993    Joan R. Acker

1992    Daniel Bell

1991    Mirra Komarovsky

1990    Robin M. Williams, Jr.

1989    Jessie Bernard

1988    George C. Homans

1987    Wilbert E. Moore

1986    Edward A. Shils

1985    Reinhard Bendix

1984    Morris Janowitz

1983    Herbert Blumer

1982    Kingsley Davis

1981    Everett C. Hughes

1980    Robert K. Merton