Society for the Study of Social Problems
Teaching Social Problems Division
Annual Business Meeting
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
2:00-3:30pm
Virtual 
In attendance:
Janelle M. Pham, Chair
Laurie Linhart
Junior Hopwood
Andrea Miller
Jacqueline Zalewski
John Fox

The meeting was called to order at 2:04pm.

The meeting began with a brief welcome from Chair Janelle M. Pham. Members in attendance introduced themselves and their interest in the Teaching Social Problems Division.

We moved on to nominations for the Division Chair position, with the elected person to assume their duties in August 2027. Andrea Miller volunteered to run for the position of Chair. A call for additional nominations will take place via email for those not able to attend the meeting. Janelle mentioned that nominations are due by October 15th. 
Next we had a robust discussion about our current Division Awards. Janelle shared the current criteria for both awards, noting that neither the Graduation Student Paper Award nor the Outstanding Article Award received any submissions this year. The membership discussed ways to encourage more submissions, with the bulk of our discussion centered on the current criteria. 
Members suggested that the current guidelines be clarified (i.e., that we seek submissions that specifically speak to teaching) and criteria be widened to encourage submissions beyond the standard journal-style paper (for the Grad Student Paper Award) or already published papers (for the Outstanding Article Award). 
For the Graduate Student Paper Award, members suggested encouraging submissions of original teaching materials (e.g., an assignment or active learning technique), along with a shorter essay that explains its pedagogical significance, innovation and contribution to the practice of teaching social problems. 
With respect to the Outstanding Scholarship Award, one member asked for a consideration of what the goal of the award is: is it to promote scholarship and innovative pedagogy, regardless of publication status, or is it to highlight scholarship that is included in peer-reviewed journals only? Another member noted that the guidelines should be written to encourage submissions beyond the traditional university classroom, to include highlighting the work of activists, practitioners and other non-academics. It was also suggested that the Outstanding Scholarship Award accept submissions that are peer-reviewed, but that are not necessarily published in a scholarly journal – for example, peer-reviewed contributions to open access sources and other publicly available venues. 
Janelle thanked the membership for their feedback – she will adopt a revised version of the current award guidelines and will invite feedback from Division Members via email after the annual meeting. 
Our next item of business was to brainstorm sessions for the 2027 Annual Meeting, with the theme “Building Communities for Radical Change.” After reading through the program theme statement, suggestions were made for the following sessions (titles tentative): 
Radical Teaching of Social Problems for Radical Change (THEMATIC)
WORKS IN PROGRESS: "Bring Your Own Brilliance”: Sharing Our Ideas That Have Been Successful in Teaching (co-sponsored with Educational Problems)
Following Division-specific business, Janelle asked the membership about their thoughts on the 2028 Annual Meeting format, to include the possibility of a meeting that does not “follow” ASA. Nearly all members present shared that they do not attend ASA (none of which were graduate students) but did note that there is a general feeling among graduate students that ASA is the “place to be” with respect to seeking job prospects. One member asked about the possibility of offering a job/hiring fair for SSSP graduate students – Janelle stated that she would bring this suggestion to the Board. 
It was announced that SSSP will hold a virtual Town hall next Tuesday, August 28th from 1-2:30pm EST – members who would like to attend should register here: https://tennessee.zoom.us/meeting/register/4P9HKatQSUiCLNdFPh01RQ#/registration 
Finally, we closed the meeting with an open forum. One member asked about ways to build a better Division presence at the upcoming meeting in NYC, given that we will not hold an in-person division meeting. Suggestions for recruiting more members or connecting with current division members included plugging the division at their solo-sponsored or co-sponsored sessions, as well as attending the Friday and Saturday receptions (the Saturday reception is Division-sponsored). All those attending the annual meeting are encouraged to attend and connect with their fellow Division members!  
The  meeting adjourned at 3:06PM. 
Respectfully submitted, 
Janelle M. Pham
Chair, Teaching Social Problems Division