Society for the Study of Social Problems 
Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division (SBPC) 
Annual Business Meeting 
Friday, August 18, 2023 
12:30pm-2:10pm, Philadelphia Ballroom North 
Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel  
 
 
Meeting Minutes:  
 
The meeting was called to order at 12:35pm.  
 
The meeting began with a welcome from Division Chair Janelle Pham & Associate Chair alithia zamantakis. All attendees introduced themselves.  
 
Next,  we recognized of our 2023 award recipients: 
 Outstanding Book Award:  
 Cati Connell, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Gender, and  Sexuality Studies, Boston University  
  A Few Good Gays: The Gendered Compromises behind Military Inclusion  
 Graduate Student Paper Competition:  
 Michelle Eilers, The University of Texas at Austin 
 “Women’s Sexual Attitudes or Behaviors: Which Changes First?” 
Cati provided attendees with a brief synopsis of her book – GO BUY IT! :)  
 
Next, we solicited nominees for the division chair and associate chair positions, to serve 2024-2026. alithia zamantakis self-nominated for the position of Division Chair. An additional call for nominations will be sent via email following the annual meeting.  
 
Next, we had a brief discussion about “rebranding” the Division. Lloyd Klein gave some background on the current division name, noting that prior to the 1970s the division was called Sexual Behavior before rebranding to Sexual Behavior, Politics and Communities. We discussed a rebranding to the broader name “Sexualities” to be more inclusive to potential members, which seemed to have support among those present in the meeting. However, before moving ahead with this process the Division members will vote on the potential rebranding. More information to come soon.  
 
Next, we began brainstorming Session Topics for 2024 Program. Some initial sessions proposed: 
 Co-sponsored sessions: 
  With Educational Problems: sex education post-Roe v Wade  
  With Teaching Social Problems: Title IX: Talking about Violence and    Discrimination in the Classroom (make broader)  
  With Gender: gendered sexuality , trans* and nonbinary-based     healthcare, gender and sexual violence  
  With CRES & gender: a methodologically-focused session: violent    methods, methods to study violence  
  With Crime & Juvenile Delinquency: gender, religion and social control 
Law and Society co-sponsorship  
Sport and Body co-sponsorship  
Crime & Juvenile Delinquency – gender-based violence  
Gender, religion and social control  
CRES + gender = methods, race, gender and sexuality – violent methods, methods to study violence (methodological violence, methodologies of violence) 
 
Lastly, we moved into Other Business/Open Forum. The Chair asked for potential ways to improve division member engagement. Some ideas proposed were: 
• With respect to promotion of Division-sponsored awards, reaching out to the ASA Sexualities Chair to further advertise and promote our awards, along with other partnerships. 

• To bolster the amount of submissions, perhaps merging our awards with other Divisions (such as Gender) – e.g., changing our Book award to call for submissions related to both sexuality and gender  

• Making our newsletter more active by asking for member-generated submissions. Some ideas mentioned included giving grad students a chance to write opinion pieces or smaller articles for the newsletter. To more closely align with our social justice mission, one attendee suggested columns such as “Hot Takes on Social Problems” or “Translating Your Research to Action”  


 
The meeting adjourned at 1:05pm. 
 
Respectfully submitted,  
Janelle M. Pham 
Division Chair, Sexual Behavior, Politics and Communities