For Department Leaders

ASA offers a variety of services and information useful to department chairs and administrators of sociology programs in colleges and universities.

Department Affiliates

The Department Affiliates Program provides a department-level link between academic institutions and the American Sociological Association. Departments receive benefits for all their faculty and students, regardless of individual membership status, including discounted TRAILS subscriptions, dedicated webinars, and more.

Department Leaders’ Toolbox

ASA has curated and compiled useful resources on a wide range of topics of interest to department chairs and administrators. These include materials on program review, assessment, maintaining a healthy climate, ideas for department renewal, student recruitment, connecting with other department chairs, managing joint departments, and assessing your library’s sociology collection.

ASA Program Reviewers and Consultants

ASA Program Reviewers and Consultants are available to assist departments with external program review, mentoring department leaders, and a variety of other special projects.

Department Leaders Preconference

New and current department leaders at all types of academic institutions are invited to attend the ASA Department Leaders Preconference at the ASA Annual Meeting. Suitable for chairs, directors of graduate studies, and directors of undergraduate studies, the conference explores the challenges facing sociology departments in the changing higher education landscape and offers practical supports related to academic department leadership. Topics rotate annually: see the 2023 preconference schedule.

Update Your Department Information in the ASA Database

Log in to the ASA Member Portal with your department’s ID and password (usually your campus zip code). If your department is an ASA Affiliate, this may be located in recent Chair Link newsletters. If not, please contact [email protected].

Update information as needed. Please be sure to include an email address for the current department chair, as well as a general email that will not change over time.

For additional assistance updating your account, please view our step-by-step instructions with screen shots.