SSSP CRD Division Newsletter Fall 2023 Society for the study of social problems community research & development division Table of Contents Message from the Chair, Teresa Irene Gonzales 2 2024 Annual Meeting Call for Papers 3 Graduate Student Paper Award 4 Community Research Paper Award 5 2023 Meeting Highlights 6 Announcements and News 7-10 Rest. Laugh, & Joy 11 Remember to renew and register! Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) 74th Annual Meeting August 9-11, 2024 Montréal, Canada Call for Papers Due January 31, 2024, 11:59pm (EST) Newsletter Editor, Lillian Wynne Platten, Loyola University Chicago Sociology Graduate Student Message from the Chair Teresa Irene Gonzales, PhD Division Chair, SSSP Community Research & Development Loyola University Chicago In her call for the SSSP 2024 annual meeting, President Mary Bernstein asks “What and how can sociology contribute to understanding and reducing violence?” Given the ongoing violence in Gaza, the growing hate crimes against Palestinians, Muslims, and Jews in the United States, the thousands of aylum seekers and migrants who are posed to experience extreme cold while unhoused in places like Chicago and New York City, and the ongoing political polarization in the U.S. that is rooted in white supremacy, this question is not only timely but imperative. As sociologists we are uniquely positioned to question and disrupt the very structures that support state-run inequality, settler colonialism, and racism. How might those of us committed to community-centered work, draw on local epistemologies to generate long-lasting solutions? How might we, as feminist Maria Lugones[1] suggests, engage in loving exchanges to create a more just world? How might we, as decolonial feminist and community psychologist Urmitapa Dutta[2] argues for, disrupt normalized everyday violence and center the knowledges and solutions of the communities most impacted by these multiple forms of violence? As scholars committed to eradicating social inequality and centering community-based expertise, I encourage us all to reflect on the ways that we can work not only in solidarity but also in action. As your new division chair, I am honored to step into the role and look forward to working with you all over the next few years. It was an absolute joy to meet several of you at our conference in Philadelphia. For those of you unfamiliar with me, I am an urban sociologist whose work is situated at the intersections of feminist, urban, and spatial inquiry with a focus on race and structural racism. You can learn more about me here: https://teresagonzales.com/ [1] Lugones, M. (1987). Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception. Hypatia, 2(2), 3-19. [2] Dutta, U. (2023). Reimagining the Politics of Belonging Through Counterstorytelling: A Decolonial Praxis of Refusal and Desire. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(5), 539-550. Toward a Sociology of Violence Poster Student Paper Competition Deadline: 1/31/24 The Community Research and Development Division announces its 2024 Graduate Student Paper Competition. Paper topics can focus on various aspects of communities, including their capacity, development, renewal, and relationship with other social issues or problems. Qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses, applied research, and theoretical papers are welcome. To be eligible for submission, a paper must not be published nor accepted for publication. Papers must be student-authored; they may be authored by a single student or co-authored by more than one student but may not be co-authored by a faculty member or other non-student. Papers must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages (including all notes, references, and tables), and should include a brief abstract. To be eligible for the award, the author(s) must make a commitment to present the paper at a session during the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting in Montréal. To be considered, submit (a) a copy of the manuscript, (b) a cover letter specifying that the paper is to be considered in the Community Research and Development Division Graduate Student Paper Competition, and (c) a short letter from each author’s advisor certifying the person’s status as a student and including some brief comments about the research. All materials must be submitted electronically to the Annual Meeting Call for Papers on the SSSP conference website by January 31, 2024 and also sent to the Committee Chair, Michael O. Johnston e-mail: johnstonmo@wmpenn.edu. Please note that students may only submit to one division. The winner will receive a $300 cash award, a one-year student membership to SSSP, conference registration fees, and a plaque of recognition. Community Partner Paper Award Deadline: 1/31/24 The Community Research and Development Division announces its 2024 Community Partner Paper Competition. Paper topics can focus on various social issues and problems related to community. The following criteria for this award were developed based on standards of Community Based Research. Although papers do not need to meet all of these criteria, greater consideration will be given to research that demonstrates more of these criteria: Research questions and/or focus reflects priorities of community partners; Research encourages involvement of community in all aspects of research design including data collection methods to incorporate language, perspectives and experiences of participants; Research encourages involvement of community in analysis and writing of paper, including co-authorship with community; Research process provides member access to one another’s expertise, demonstrating an appreciation of academic and local community knowledge; Results are ‘owned’ by the community; Research has consequences for guiding social action, policy or program change for community; Research democratizes and decolonizes the knowledge creation process by re-imagining relationships between researchers and subjects of research. Papers may be pre-published or published in 2022-present. Papers may be coauthored by more than one faculty member, community member and/or student. Community partners are characterized by any community-based entity or representative that is outside of the academy. Papers must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages (including all notes, references, and tables), and should include a brief abstract. To be eligible for the award, the author(s) must make a commitment to present the paper at a session during the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting in Montréal. To be considered, submit (a) a copy of the manuscript, (b) a cover letter specifying that the paper is to be considered in the Community Research and Development Division Community Partner Paper Competition, and (c) a brief letter from the community partner commenting on their role in the paper. All materials must be submitted electronically to the Annual Meeting Call for Papers on the SSSP conference website by January 31, 2024 and also sent to the Committee Chair, Susan Halverson email: shalver2@pdx.edu. The winner will receive a plaque of recognition at the Community Research and Development Division business meeting. 2023 Meeting Highlights CRD SPONSORED AND CO-SPONSORED SESSIONS Power to the People?: Community Power and Community Decision-Making (2 Sessions) Contested Places: Community Responses to Place-Based Harms Whose City is it Anyway? Spatial Development and Design Locating Education Change in Community (Educational Problems Co-sponsor) Racial Reparations at Community Level (Poverty, Class, and Inequality Co-sponsor) Understanding Community through Visual Images (Family Co-sponsor) CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Activist Café: Community Activists and Scholars in Dialogue (Conflict, Social Action, & Change, and Institutional Ethnography Co-sponsors) MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEWS, AND ACHIEVEMENTS PUBLICATIONS Draus, Paul and Carlos Nielbock. Wind in the Weeds: Carlos Nielbock and the Fight for the Future of Detroit. In Press, Michigan State University Press. Hormel, Leontina. 2023 (November 10). Trailer Park America: Reimagining Working-Class Communities. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press. (Order via RUP website using code RUSA30 to receive a 30% discount!) Krase, Jerome, 2023. “Urban Vernacular Landscapes: Toward a Visual Pedagogy of the Ordinary,” International Review of Sociology - REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE SOCIOLOGIE https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2023.22632. Nocella II, Anthony J., (ed). The Lowrider Studies Reader: Culture, Resistance, Liberation, and Familia. Nocella II, Anthony J., (ed). Resisting Neoliberal Schooling Dismantling the Rubricization and Corporatization of Higher Education. Nocella II, Anthony J., (ed), & Richard J. White (ed). Critical Animal Studies and Activism International Perspectives on Total Liberation and Intersectionality. PRESENTATIONS Paul Draus, Professor of Sociology, The University of Michigan-Dearborn gave several recent talks, including: Alley Activation and Urban Acupuncture In Detroit: A Neighborhood Resilience Strategy For Post Industrial Cities. Guest Lecture at Revitalization of Green Spaces, Urban Development and Future Technologies Conference (virtual). Karachi, Pakistan. 18 October 2023. The Risk and Promise of the Joe Louis Greenway. Presented at the Opening Panel of the Vacant Land Community Summit, organized by the JLG Neighborhood Framework Planning Study on Tuesday, at Equity Alliance, Detroit. August 15th, 2023. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT From Paul Draus, PhD: One of my first goals as Faculty Director at the University of Michigan Detroit Center was to better understand all the work currently being done at the Center so I can more effectively promote the programming and partnership opportunities that we offer. I believe we have the opportunity to grow our family of collaborations in ways that leverage the tremendous resources of the University of Michigan while also centering the interests and ingenuity of our current and prospective partners. As a native of the Prairie State of Illinois, I don’t claim to call myself a Detroiter, but I have developed a great appreciation for, and allegiance to, this city and its people. I began working at the University of Michigan in 2005, the same year that the Detroit Center was founded, and I have been a regular user of the Center since its early days. Over the years, I have held classes, hosted panel discussions, organized storytelling events, and conducted faculty retreats at the Detroit Center. As a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, I have been involved with research, teaching and service activities in Detroit for more than fifteen years, starting with academic service-learning classes and substance abuse research and then moving into more sustained engagement with local communities and issues related to urban agriculture, land use and environmental justice. From Leontina Hormel, Professor, University of Idaho The book Trailer Park America that is released this fall 2023 reflects community action research I conducted with residents at Syringa Mobile Home Park. I continue efforts with four other mobile home communities that were bought in fall 2022 by a corporation that has purchased over 70 mobile home communities in the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. As has been witnessed in other cases nationwide, this corporation (Hurst and Son LLC) seeks to hike rents by 40 to 50 percent and is pressuring mobile homeowners to sign a lengthy lease filled with illegal terms. In the past year, I have assisted community members as they successfully organized a homeowners' cooperative (essentially a tenants' union) and also located legal support through the Intermountain Fair Housing Council. These efforts are ongoing with no resolution yet reached. From Anura Widana, PhD, Team Leader/Mission Head, External Monitoring of Dasu Hydropower Project, Pakistan The project has carried out a number of activities some of which have hugely contributed to better education outcome for the community. The significant achievements are : near-hundred percent school enrollment, very high levels of school attendance, zero school drop-outs. Our assessment shows that percentage of households enrolling their children in school has hit the 100% mark for boys. For girls, it is 98%, both of which are huge improvements since the project’s beginning some 10 years ago. At that time, only about 40% of households enrolled their boys in school whilst about 30% of girls were enrolled in school. The achievements are entirely attributable to the project. We are currently in the process of preparation of a paper for publication detailing the educational improvements as well as analyzing the reasons behind such advancements. More to follow soon. AWARDS Paul Draus, PhD, recently completed a Fulbright Scholar fellowship in Lithuania, from January through April 2023. It culminated in a Roundtable Discussion on June 17, 2023 that he co-organized at the Baltic Studies Conference at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania on “Urban Collective Action around Public and Green Spaces” with Jūratė Imbrasaitė from Vytautas Magnus University. Participants included Ed Carroll and Vita Gėlūnienė, Žemieji Šančiai community, Evelina Šimkutė, Kultūros Dirbtuvė, and Jūratė Tutlytė, Vytautas Magnus University. Paul Draus, PhD, I was recently named Faculty Director of the University of Michigan Detroit Center. JOURNAL CALL FOR PAPERS You are cordially invited to submit a paper for the special issue of the Journal of Genealogy. Please read a summary of the introduction by clicking the link below. It will give you an overview of the topics covered in this Special Issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy/special_issues/H04HKGBI7P As we wrap up the term and the year, take time to rest, laugh, and surround yourself with joy.