Statement from the Co-Chair Teresa Scheid Dear Health, Health Services, and Health Policy Section Members, It’s hard to believe we are mid-semester already. It seems like Chicago was just yesterday. Our sessions were well attended and quite lively. I think SSSP is important for the social support and mentoring junior scholars get. Please also consider either submitting a paper for the Student Paper competition, or encouraging your students to do so. Paul and I have put together an exciting list of sessions for next year, and do look forward to meeting many of you in Seattle. These sessions are listed in the 2016 Annual Meeting section of this newsletter. -- Teresa Scheid Graduate Student Paper Awards The Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Division invites all graduate students to apply for the annual paper award competition. The paper should be related to the broad division interest, including health and illness, health policy, and health services. Current graduate students and recent graduates (who received their degrees after January 2015) may submit a paper if it was written while a student. Papers based on theses or dissertations are acceptable. Co-authored papers are acceptable as long as all the listed authors were graduate students at the time the paper was written. Double submission to other SSSP award competitions will disqualify the submission. The award recipient will present a version of the winning paper at a session of the 2016 SSSP Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. Thus, the paper also should be submitted to any Health Division meeting session organizer or the roundtable organizer by the January 31st deadline. The recipient will receive a monetary prize of $100, a plaque of recognition, student membership, and conference registration. The winner will be recognized at the Division Meeting as well as the SSSP Awards Ceremony. Send an electronic copy of the paper and a cover letter identifying your graduate program to: Teresa L. Scheid, tlscheid@uncc.edu. The paper submission should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages (including references) and should be prepared for anonymous review (with the author specified only on the cover page). The deadline is 1/31/16. News of Note Please remember to renew your membership. Memberships expire on Dec 31!  Our membership is diverse, representing not only academia, but policy, practice, and activist viewpoints as well.  Let's continue to reflect this diversity by also telling our colleagues about the SSSP and the Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Division. Division member, Allison Matthews, earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August 2015. She presented original research on the strategies Black gay men use to negotiate anti-gay stigma and the risk of gay identity disclosure in Black churches at ASA in Chicago. She has been hired as a postdoctoral research fellow with the "searcHIV: Social and Ethical Aspects of Research on Curing HIV" project housed in the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease at UNC Chapel Hill and is currently working on a project that examines the use of online and in-person methods to engage community members around the social and ethical considerations of HIV cure research. Congratulations Allison! Division member, J.Steven Picou, University of South Alabama, was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor of Sociology by the USA Board of Trustees in September 2015. Congratulations J. Steven! Job Posting Oakland University’s Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice is looking for a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor of Sociology position to begin Fall 2016. They seek candidates with teaching experience or potential in the area of research methods and statistics. Priority will be given to candidates who also have the potential to teach courses in race/ethnicity and/or sociological theory. The search is open with regard to areas of research specialization. They seek candidates with strong potential in the areas of scholarship, teaching, and service. While candidates with ABD status will be considered, a Ph.D. in Sociology or a related field is required at the time of appointment. Teaching load, salary and benefits are competitive. Oakland University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and strongly encourages applications from minority candidates. Applications will be accepted at http://jobs.oakland.edu Call for Papers SSSP is accepting extended abstracts and papers for presentation at the 2016 annual meeting. Each participant is permitted to submit one sole-authored paper and one critical dialogue paper, but additional co-authored papers may be submitted. All papers must be submitted by midnight (EST) on January 31, 2016 in order to be considered. Society and Mental Health seeks scholarship on public sector mental health, with focus on the role of structural and behavioral correlates of mental health disparities and the consequences of social inequality for those systems which meet the needs of individuals with severe mental disorders. Of particular interest is scholarship which explores the role of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. Manuscripts which elucidate the unique contributions sociologists can make to mental health services research are also welcome. Articles will be peer reviewed and 4 to 6 papers selected for inclusion in this special issue. The guest editor will provide a brief historic overview of developments in public mental health care. Manuscripts due March 15, 2016; please submit papers using the journal’s on-line submission system. 66th Annual Meeting Globalizing Social Problems August 19-21, 2016 Westin Seattle Hotel Seattle, WA Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Division Sessions, 2016 Co-Chairs: Teresa Scheid (tlscheid@uncc.edu) term ending 2016 and Paul Draus (draus@umich.edu), term ending 2017 Solo Sponsored Sessions Session Title: Health and Global Social Movements Session Type: Thematic Organizer: Catherine Tan, Brandeis University (ctan@brandeis.edu) Session Title: Debating and Defining a Culture of Health Session Type: Critical Dialogue Organizer: Pau l Draus, University of Michigan (draus@umich.edu) Session Title: Health, Health Services and Health Policy Session Type: Roundtables Organizer: Teresa L. Scheid, UNC-Charlotte (tlscheid@uncc.edu). Co-Sponsored Sessions Session Title: Housing, Homelessness and Health. Co-Sponsor: Community Research and Development Session Type: Regular Paper Session Organizer: Erin Ruel, Georgia State University (eruel@gsu.edu) Session Title: Health and Well-Being Across the Life Course Co-Sponsors: Youth, Aging and Life Course; Society and Mental Health Organizer: Joseph Wolfe, University of Alabama at Birmingham (jdwolfe@uab.eud) Session Title: Health Across Borders Co-Sponsor: Sociology and Social Welfare Session Type: Thematic Organizer: April Schueths, Georgia Southern University (aschueths@georgiasouthern.edu) Session Title: Performance, Medicalization and the Body Co-Sponsors: Drinking and Drugs; Sport, Leisure and the Body Session Type: Regular Organizer: Jason Ford, University of Central Florida (jason.ford@ucf.edu) Session Title: Marijuana and Health Co-Sponsor: Drinking and Drugs Session Type: Regular Organizer: Steve Lankenau, Drexel University (sel159@drexel.edu) Session Title: Health and the Environment Co-Sponsor: Environment and Technology Session Type: Regular Organizer: Paul Draus, University of Michigan (draus@umich.edu) Session Title: Disability and the Global South Co-Sponsor: Disability Organizer: Angel Miles (amiles3@umd.edu) 1