Environment and Technology Business meeting
SSSP annual meeting 2023

E&T met in person at the 2023 Annual Business meeting (Philadelphia)
Minutes taken by Lauren Eastwood

In attendance:
Lauren Eastwood (current Chair) (LE)
Allison Ramirez Madia (ARM)
Angus Nurse (AN)
Nels Paulson (NP)

Agenda:

1) Introductions:  

2) Student Paper award:  

a. Announcement/recognition of winner:

Thank you to Daina Harvey, Lisa Jo Van Den Scott and Danielle Falzon for serving this year!!  (a blurb from the committee was read at the business meeting)

The 2023 Brent K. Marshall Graduate Student Paper Award winner is Allison Ramirez Madia (University of California, Los Angeles) for their paper: ÒDrought and Settler Colonialism in the Tohono During the Mid-Twentieth Century.ÓÊ
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b. Committee composition for next year:

Daina and Allison agreed to serve.  LE will put the call out for one more person.  If unable to get someone, both NP and AN indicated they would be willing to serve.


3) Sessions for next year:  

Note:  Division Chairs are using a Google Doc this year to ensure that there is not significant duplication between/among sessions.


Theme for next year:  Toward a Sociology of Violence (see SSSP website for further descriptionÑthis was read out and discussed at the meeting)


E&T Sessions for next year: At the business meeting, LE explained what had already been discussed/proposed by other E&T members and other Division Chairs.

NUMBER OF SESSIONS: We can have a maximum of 3 sole-sponsored (Environment & Technology) sessions, and 7 co-sponsored sessions (with as many other divisions as we want).

Prior to the business meeting, 7 co-sponsored sessions were proposed.  We discussed all of the proposed sessions and three sole-sponsored sessions were proposed at the business meeting.  LE agreed to follow up with the other division chairs and with E&T members to seek organizers etc.

It was suggested that we engage in outreach to Montreal-based environmental sociology programs.


4) Publication Projects:

Marko Salvaggio (active E&T member) is working on a proposal for an edited volume through Bristol University Press

LE discussed perhaps pursuing a special issue of Social Problems. There was a general interest in looking into this.

AN suggested that a publication could come out of the Òteaching environmental social problemsÓ session for next year (co-sponsored with the Education division).  This is proposed as a round table, and contributing authors could work towards a teaching-focused volume.


5) Newsletter:  Emily Burke (our newsletter editor) couldnÕt be here this year, but she has agreed to continue editing the newsletter.

LE will be putting out a call for content soon, so we can get one out in October or early NovemberÑwith blurbs about our sessions etc.

AN suggested that people should be encouraged to write short articles for the newsletter.  AN also pointed out that the newsletter would be a good place to put out calls for collaborations on research projects.


6) Elections:  E&T needs to hold elections this year as LEÕs term ends at the 2024 meeting, and we need someone elected prior to that.

We now can have an election with only one candidateÑthe rules have changedÑbut we need to make several attempts at getting more than one person first.

At the Business Meeting AN and AR both indicated they might have an interest in running as Chair/Vice Chair candidates.  LE will look into this option.


7) Other business:

There was an interest in having a mid-year zoom meeting

The general consensus was that next yearÕs business meeting should also be in person.

There was a discussion of the 2025 meeting in terms of events that E&T might do in association with the meeting.  NP reminded people that Kelsey Ryan Simkins had organized a food justice/urban agriculture tour for the San Francisco meetings that were canceled due to covid.  LE agreed to get in touch with her to see if this could be organized for 2025.