SSSP Law and Society Division 2026 Business Meeting Minutes Friday, July 24, 2026 3:00PM ET | Held Via Zoom Attendance: Michael Branch (Chair) Sino Esthappan (Vice Chair) Gunercindo Espinoza Agenda: 1. Review of minutes from 2025 division business meeting 1. No changes suggested. No comments from members 2. 2026 Sessions 1. Solo Sessions 1. Law in/as Crisis: Punishment and the Legitimacy of State Violence 2. Law in/as Crisis: Legal Consciousness and Rights Mobilization 3. Law in/as Crisis: Spatial Mechanisms of Legal Control 2. Co-sponsored Sessions 1. Beyond Therapeutic Regimes: Critiquing Traditional Medical and Criminal Legal Responses 2. Gender and Violence: International Perspectives 3. Gender and Violence: Structural Issues 4. Gender and Violence: Institutional Perspectives 5. The Border Crossed Me: Shifting Lifeworlds of Immigration 3. Session ideas for the 2027 SSSP annual meeting program 1. Annual meeting will be held in Chicago 1. Theme: Building Communities for Radical Change 2. Discussed panel types and how many sessions a division can sponsor 1. Law and Society, as a medium-sized division, has 2 solo sessions and up to 4 co-sponsored sessions 3. Tentative ideas for division-sponsored sessions 1. Law in/as Crisis 1. Staple offering for our division 2. Law and Radical Transformation 1. Focused on change, hope, resistance to align with the theme of the annual meeting 4. Tentative ideas for co-sponsored sessions 1. Critical Race and Ethnic Study Co-Chair (Gunercindo) proposed collaborating on a session 2. Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities 1. Collaborated in the past on sessions like Gender and Law 3. Sport, Leisure, and the Body 1. Living on the Edge: The Sociology of Voluntary Risk-taking 1. Emailed as suggestion 4. Crime and Justice 1. Collaborated in the past 5. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Collaborated in the past 4. Ideas for special activities of the division 1. Division can host workshops before and/or after the meeting, but it is an extra cost to participants 2. Law and Society had not done one but is soliciting topic ideas 1. Workshop plans have to be submitted at least a year and sometimes two years in advance 2. Challenge of getting people to come to the conference a day early or stay a day later given other costs and considerations 3. Suggestions 1. Divisions can coordinate with Social Problems to propose special issue 1. Generate visibility, especially for members who are not able to attend annual meeting, but have research/writing to share 2. Was discussed at the Council meeting in July 2026 3. Environment and Technology has a special issue planned that’s forthcoming 1. Could be helpful to connect with E&T to see what their experience was like with the process 4. Could be a good fit for Law and Society with the theme for next year’s annual meeting 2. Possibility of hosting informal meetings for members outside of the annual meeting to check in with each other, share research in progress, etc. 3. Graduate student writing group that meets regularly 1. Could be a stepping stone into division/SSSP leadership and participation 2. Depending on interest, could extend to broader division membership 5. Announcement of winners of awards sponsored by the division 1. Alfred R. Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Award Winner: Solome Haile, “Money Instead of Change: How Civil Compensation for Police Violence Shapes Litigants' Views of the State” 2. Alfred R. Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Award Honorable Mention: Amelia Roskin-Frazee, “Therapeutic Retribution: When Offender Punishment Becomes Victim Care in Progressive Prosecution” 3. Edward H. Sutherland Book Award Winner: The Secrets of Silence: The Everyday Policing of Black Women and Their Stories about Violence, Shannon Malone Gonzalez 4. Edward H. Sutherland Book Award Honorable Mention: Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing, Rahim Kurwa 6. Division leadership 1. Amani Awaad was elected as the Chair of the division and will serve in the role through the 2028 annual meeting 7. 2026 Division Budget 1. Brief update on division’s budget and how money has been allocated 1. 2026 budget: $600 2. Projected 2027 budget: $500 2027 Budget Items Requested Amount Cash Award to the Division’s Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner $150 Membership Dues for the Division’s Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner $46 Annual Meeting Registration for the Division’s Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner $83 Cash Award to the Division’s Outstanding Scholarship Award Winner $150 Division-Sponsored Reception at the Annual Meeting $71 TOTAL $500 2. No volunteers for social media coordinator, scholarship awards increased 3. Referenced discussion from Council meeting to share that newsletters are optional 8. Any other business 1. Discussion of merging/consolidation with Crime and Justice as a way to share resources and leadership. Would want to protect Law and Society in some capacity, whether through awards or sessions. Will revisit at the Council meeting during the Annual Meeting. 2. Discussion of how to encourage members to participate and step into leadership roles. Suggestion of focusing on finding ways to pique member interest. 1. Good involvement when it comes to the outstanding scholarship committees 2. A lot of overlap with other divisions, so we’re asking the same things of members of both divisions and they may have to prioritize 1. From the SSSP Division Consolidation Task Force Report: About 41% of Law and Society members also belong to Crime and Justice, while 35% of Crime and Justice members also belong to Law and Society.