Editor: Ebonie Cunningham Stringer, PhD Family Division Newsletter in this issue 1. FROM THE DESK OF OUR DIVISION CHAIR A message from Michigan encouraging your continued participation in SSSP 2. 2008 STUDENT PAPER COMPETITIONS AND OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP Awards sponsored by the Family Division 3. SHARING OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS Learn what important contributions division members are making to their fields 4. We look forward to your contributions in San Francisco From the Desk of our Division Chair I hope you have enjoyed a productive fall. Here in Michigan the weather is cold, wet and snowy. Brrrrr - we are freezing and rushing around trying to get everything done before the holidays and discussing things like “lake effect snow.” After we had such a wonderful annual meeting in Boston last summer, we are already preparing for an equally successful time in San Francisco this year at the SSSP 59th Annual Meeting to be held August 7-9, 2009 at the Stanford Court Hotel, 905 California Street, San Francisco, CA. The theme will be “Race, Ethnicity, and the Continuing Problem of the Color Line”. A rich and timely theme. The Family Division will sponsor three sessions and co-sponsor six others. We are also planning two workshops. You are invited to submit your papers online. Papers are due by January 31, 2009. I want to thank Ebonie Cunningham Stringer for her continuing work as newsletter editor. Her work is a great contribution to the success of the division. As always, please send us your book reviews and other newsworthy articles for publication in the newsletter. I look forward to a great new year with you. Cheryl Boudreaux, Division Chair The Family Division announces its 2009 Graduate Student Paper Competition. Papers should be of professional quality and may relate to any aspect of sociology of the family.  Authors should be currently enrolled as graduate students, or individuals who received their Ph.D.’s May 2008 or later.  To be eligible, a paper may not be published, accepted, or under review for publication.  Papers that have been presented at a professional meeting or submitted for presentation at a professional conference are eligible.  Papers must be student authored; they can be authored by one or more students, but may not be co- authored with a faculty member or non- student.  Papers should be no more than 35 pages in length, including all notes, references, and tables.  Please email papers and a cover letter specifying that the paper is to be considered for the Family Division Graduate Student Paper Competition to: Dr. Mary Ann Kanieski,  kanieski@saintmarys.edu  Alternatively, papers may be sent via snail mail to Dr. Mary Ann Kanieski, Department of Sociology, 20 Spes Unica Hall, Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame,  IN 46556 .  Deadline: 1/16/09. The winner and any runners- up will be announced in Spring 2009.  The winner(s) will receive a modest cash stipend, registration fees, and an opportunity to present her/his paper at the SSSP conference, held August 7- 9, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. Announcements And Accomplishments for division members Fall 2008 Please take the time to review our members’ recent publications and accomplishments. We hope that you will consider making them a part of your personal library, incorporating them into your course syllabi, or your applied work. Dr. Margo Kushner’s article "A Dual Model for Completing Parenting Plans Post Separation" will be published in the Journal of Divorce & Remarriage. This model combines the strength based and the person in environment perspectives to provide an alternative model of practice for high conflict divorce. Dr. Kushner has completed more than 300 expert reports as an expert witness in various court systems in North America. Her work is concerned with procedural flaws in court systems that espouse to representing the "best interests of children”. She is a social worker. Dr. Roma Stovall Hanks has been promoted to Professor and named Department Chair of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at the University of South Alabama. Dr. Hanks's research focuses on family; aging and the life course; and family and community social support as they relate to health disparities. Her current research projects focus on the life course and family relationships of women in jail and family/community social support for cancer patients. The master's program in applied sociology at the University of South Alabama has tracks in Aging, Family, Criminology, Medical, and Environmental Sociology. For information about the program, visit our website at www.southalabama.edu/syansw Walter DeKeseredy has been recognized for his research on violence against women by the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT), which has awarded him the Linda Saltzman Memorial Intimate Partner Violence Researcher Award.  IVAT gave Walter his award in person at their 13th International Conference in San Diego on September 16th. Roberta L. Coles will have a new book out in Winter 2009: Best Kept Secret:  Black Single Fathers, published by Rowman & Littlefield.  The book is the result of a qualitative study of 20 black, single, custodial fathers and looks at why they chose to seek custody, what parental roles they enact, how they parent sons & daughters, and what effect parenting has had on the fathers themselves. Weigt, Jill M. and Catherine Richards Solomon. 2008. “Work/life management among low-income women and female assistant professors in the United States: An intersectional analysis.” Gender, Work and Organization 15:621-649. The IVAT Award recognizes the late Linda Saltzman, who dedicated her life to ending intimate partner violence through research by recognizing researchers who have made substantial contributions to the field of intimate partner violence. Charles V. Willie, Steven P. Ridini and David A. Willard are co-editors of Grassroots Social Action: Lessons in People Power Movements, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2008. Nine case studies are presented and analyzed. The book shows the complementary relationship between dominant and subdominant people of power including children and their parents and similar relationships in other institutions. A case study of particular interest to social scientists concerned with family relations and other social organizations is “The Alpha Case Study on Human Sexuality and Health Education” and “The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama.” The two case studies examine how parents and their children jointly participate in resolving issues that divide the community. Rowman and Littlefield publishers have invited Charles Willie and Richard Reddick to prepare a sixth edition of their well-known book, A New Look at Black Families, which should be available in 2009. CONFERENCE INFORMATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS Family Division sessions 1. Family Policy Organizer/Presider: Nancy Mezey NMEZEY@MONMOUTH.EDU 2. Race and Families (thematic) Organizer/Presider: Michele Janning JANNINMY@WHITMAN.EDU 3. Youth, Family and Community Programs Organizer/Presider: Ebonie Cunningham-Stringer EBONIE.CUNNINGHAM@WILKES.EDU Co-sponsored sessions 1. Queer Families With: Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Co-Organizer/Presiders: Nancy Mezey and Jaime McCauley NMEZEY@MONMOUTH.EDU 2. Infertility and Alternative Paths to Parenthood With: Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Organizer: Kristin Wilson kristyw@yahoo.com 3. Families in Poverty With: Poverty Class and Inequality Organizer: Maryann kenieski kanieski@saintmarys.edu 4. Mapping Families, Jobs, and Schools With: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Alison Griffith agriffith@edu.yorku.ca 5. Giving and Receiving Care With: Youth, Aging and the Life Course Co-Organizers: Heather Dillaway dillaway@wayne.edu And Elizabeth Pare` ac7023@wayne.edu 6. Families on the Color Line (thematic) With: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Organizer/Presider: Erica Chito Childs Please submit your abstracts and papers online by January 31, 2009.