GENDER, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, POLITICS, AND COMMUNITIES Society for the Study of Social Problems INSIDE THIS ISSUE Message from Current Co-Chairs In Memoriam Division Meeting Division Award Winners Publications Announcements Call for Submissions SPRING 2025 NEWSLETTER LETTER FROM THE CO-CHAIRS Friends, colleagues, and comrades,  We are living in a time of increasing political instability, bearing witness to the mass terminations of health research that includes transgender, Black, and/or Latine people, mass layoffs of federal workers within Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protections Agency, and more, the attacks on unions (particularly the Association of Federal Government Employees [AFGE]), the war on immigrants that continues across the nation, the attacks on anything related to diversity, equity, and/or inclusion, the assault on transgender people and children, and the termination, detention, and potential deportation of immigrant students, staff, and faculty who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people for their liberation. We know that these attacks will not end here and will only continue to harm our membership and the oppressed and working people of this nation. In states like Ohio, transgender people no longer have access to restrooms in public institutions, and universities have already begun changing their bathroom signage. In Iowa, all civil protections for transgender people have been eroded. Students like Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk have been horrifically abducted by Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.  The billionaire class is using transgender people, immigrants, and Black people as scapegoats for the political and economic failures of a decaying empire. Our communities are blamed for the ills of this nation as an attempt to divide us, to prevent us from uniting and fighting back. But, we know that where there is repression, there is resistance. Across the country, the masses of people are rising up to demand a better future. We know that this moment brings increasing difficulties for each of us. For many living outside the US, coming to the annual conference will not be possible. Even for those living in the US, funding cuts have resulted in travel funds being rescinded.  We encourage SSSP as an institution to find ways for remote and hybrid conferences in the future. We must use this moment to build the scaffolding needed for future instability, future pandemics, and future attacks on our people. We must also use this moment to reimagine ways this institution can be used and shaped in order to not only defend our communities but to fight for more than the scraps previously afforded us. We deserve more. We deserve a world in which everyone is guaranteed housing, (affirming) healthcare, livable wages, the right to protest and free speech, and safety from police and state violence. A better world is possible, and we look forward to fighting for it with each of you. In solidarity, alithia zamantakis, Meghna Bhat, and Hannah Regan (co-chair elect) INTRODUCING OUR NEW CO-CHAIR: HANNAH REGAN Hannah Regan, Ph.D., (she/her) is the interim Executive Director and Associate Director for Research and Evaluation in the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women at Case Western Reserve University. She has been a member of SSSP for eight years. Her research focuses on sexuality as it intersects with media and technology, and in more recent years gender in higher education. Her book on dating apps and social inequality is expected later this year (forgive the plug!). Hannah is very excited to be stepping into the chair position for the section on Gender, Sexuality Behavior, Politics, and Communities this year, and looks forward to working with everyone in the section! NEW PUBLICATIONS Ghaziani, Amin. 2025. “The Cultural Field of Queer Nightlife: Organizations, Artists, and Curatorial Activism.” The Sociological Quarterly. Online first: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00380253.2025.2466496. Tate Morgan, Kathryn Henne, Jude Blacklock, and Kate Starre. Counting Women: Indicator Culture and Gender Inclusion in Sports Leadership. International Review for the Sociology of Sport (online first). Gross, N. (2025). The Hidden Toll of Grief After Youth Gun Violence. Contexts, 24(1), 34-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/15365042251318668.  And accompanying Contexts podcast interview: tinyurl.com/FEAGriefPod.  Sifat, R. I. (2025). AI and Public Policy: Navigating the Possibilities and Limitations. Politics & Policy, 53(1), e70019. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70019.  The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship recipient Mallick, Rafia. 2025. “Chapter 8: Who are South Asians, You Ask? Culture, Identity, and Diversity.” in Taking Root? Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Migration: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. Mallick, Rafia, and Deirdre Oakley. 2024. “Book Review: Slow and Sudden Violence—Why and When Uprisings Occur by Hyra, Derek.” Urban Affairs Review 10780874241308125. doi: 10.1177/10780874241308125. Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/10015371/ IN MEMORIAM We are deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of Brett Lesley Cumberbatch, a doctoral student at the University of Manitoba and former advisor for the Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communication section of SSSP. Brett was a valued member of our organization, our field, and our society at large. We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Petra. Below, we share a brief message from our co-chair elect, Hannah Regan.  I had the pleasure of meeting Brett in person for the first time at SSSP in Montreal last August, and though it was a short acquaintance, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity. As a scholar, particularly as someone focused on Black masculinities, Brett had such a beautiful lens on the work, pushing beyond familiar arenas to explore these topics in spaces of reflection and healing. Brett had a genuine curiosity about others and their work which made him not only a great scholar but a great person (He even generously offered to share his zip code with me so I could access an Olympic event stream while we were in Montreal, a small thing which meant a great deal to me). He is a great loss to our community, and his contributions will be much missed.  DIVISION MEETING Please join us at our next Division Meeting this May 15th at 1:00-2:00PM (PST)/ 4:00-5:00PM (EST). Agenda is forthcoming. Register here at this Zoom link. AWARD WINNERS Congratulations to the winners of the Outstanding Scholarship and Graduate Student Paper Awards! Graduate Student Paper Award Gender Category: "What's Behind the 'Oxford Study?: Relationship-Based Stigma and the Symbolic Significance of Eastern Asian Women/White Man Unions," Olivia Hu, University of Pennsylvania. Sexuality Category: "Localization of Sex Testing: Transnational Knowledge Production of Sex," Jinsun Tang, University of Oregon. Outstanding Scholarship Award Sexualities Category: “The Coloniality of Queer Theory: The Effects of Homonormativity on Transnational Taiwan’s Path to Equality,” Ying-Chao Kao, Virginia Commonwealth University. Gender Category: “Walking the Orientalism Tightrope: How Muslim Americans Construct their Gender Ideologies,” Eman Abdelhadi and Anna Fox, University of Chicago.  NEW BOOKS Kathryn Henne and Matt Ventresca. August 2025. Violent Impacts: How Power and Inequality Shape the Concussion Crisis. University of California Press. Worthen, Meredith G. F. 2024. Interrogating the Use of LGBTQ Slurs: Still Smearing the Queer. New York: Routledge. ANNOUNCEMENTS Thank you to our award reviewers! We are so grateful for the service of the individuals below who made it possible for our Division to award four scholars the Outstanding Article Award and the Graduate Student Paper Award. Our Division could not function without all of you.  Lloyd Klein (Chair for the Graduate Student Paper Award) Gunercindo Espinoza Lauren Danielowski Claire Reardon Jennifer Carpenter (Chair for the Outstanding Article Award) Hannah Regan Eden Nay Simon Griffith Alan Santinele Martino  Meghna Bhat, Ph.D, an independent scholar-practitioner and a gender and social justice consultant, received the 2025 Victimology Impact Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Victimology Division on March 15th in Denver, CO. She was recognized for her contributions in inspiring survivors/ victims, and marginalized groups experiencing oppression, to find their voice and craft their stories in safe spaces. Congratulations, Meghna! Dr. Diana Therese M. Veloso PN (Res) was reappointed Coordinator of the Master of Health Social Science program, which is housed under the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences at De La Salle University in the Philippines. She also serves as the Coordinator of the Gender and Multiculturalism interdisciplinary course offered by the College of Liberal Arts at the same university. Dr. Veloso is one of the Book Review Editors of Gender and Justice, an international and transdisciplinary journal published by Bristol University Press. The journal was launched on March 4, 2025, and is free to access until May 31, 2025. The launch issue is available on the following link: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/gj/gj-overview.xml?tab_body=editorial-board. Dr. Veloso was one of two speakers in a webinar titled “Empowering Di-SHE-Plines: Femininomenon: Women in Research,” which was organized by the De La Salle University Guild of Sociology Students on March 26, 2025. The event examined women’s experiences in sociological research and practice in the Philippine context. As a reservist in the Philippine Navy, Dr. Veloso participated in a seminar on gender issues, as part the culminating activity for the celebration of International Women’s Month, on March 29, 2025, at the University of Makati in the Philippines. In addition, she assisted in providing crowd control and first aid during the Feast of the Black Nazarene, a religious devotion for Filipino Catholics, on January 9, 2025. Dr. Veloso was elected treasurer (2024-2026) of Ecclesia of Women in Asia, an organization of women theologians based in Asia and the Pacific. She is involved in advocacy work for women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. During the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican, she was one of four speakers at a panel discussion on women in the diaconate on October 15, 2024. She subsequently gave a talk about her experiences during the adjunct event of the Synod, at the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters’ provincial house in Cebu City, located in the southern Philippines, on December 18, 2024. Congratulations, Dr. Veloso! Call for Submissions SSSP is seeking candidates for the 2026 SSSP General Election. We encourage all division members to consider serving. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged! The online nomination form can be accessed here.