IE Newsletter Institutional Ethnography Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Volume 16, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2018 Nicola Waters Division Chair Thompson Rivers University nwaters@tru.ca Send correspondence to: Gina Petonito Correspondence and Copy Editor petonig@muohio.edu Jayne Malenfant Assistant Editor jayne.malenfant@mail.mcgill.ca On the Inside - Members News & Notes - Call for IE Division Awards - Remembering Philadelphia - Welcome New Members! - Recent IE Publications - In Memorium - Looking forward to New York From the Division Chair: Nicola Waters Hi fellow IErs, I am not sure how it happened but we find ourselves at the end of another year! 2019 will mark the end of my term as division chair and I am thrilled to welcome LaNysha Adams as the new chair-elect.ÊÊLaNysha brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm and I am already enjoying working with her as she transitions into the position. I continue to hear exciting things from people conducting institutional ethnographies all over the world in a growing number of disciplines and topic areas. SSSP Conference planning is well underway and I hope to see many of you in New York in August. With this yearsÕ themeÊIlluminating the SOCIAL in Social ProblemsÊwe have lots of opportunity to showcase our divisionÕs work. DonÕt forget the call for abstracts closesÊJanuary 31, 2019. I highly encourage you to submit as it is a great venue to share and get feedback on your work. We will also be hosting an IE workshop in conjunction with the conference. For those of you who have not attended previously this is a great opportunity for experienced and novice IEers to mix, mingle and learn from each other. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I wish all a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and productive 2019. Nicola Waters Remembering Philadelphia George W. Smith Student Paper Award Winner This yearÕs winner of the George W. Smith Student Paper Award is Alison Fisher a doctoral candidate from York University. The title of the paper she delivered in Montreal is: "The ÔEquity WorkÕ of the Activist Educator: Critical Re-imagining of Schools." Congratulations Alison! Paper Abstract: In this paper, I begin with the everyday experiences of activist teachers in the classroom, to make visible how changing soci-historical conditions in Ontario, Canada (i.e. declining birth rates) combined with particular manifestations of managerial and risk discourses applied to educational governance in the province of Ontario, have (re) organize(d) a teacherÕs workday and their approach to curriculum in particular. From 2016- 2018, I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with approximately 19 school staff, the majority of whom are engaged in equity activism within schools. In this paper, I explore how specific discourses of student achievement, measurement, safety, and risk are impacting teachersÕ approaches to curriculum and shaping the limited resources that are available to classroom teachers to engage in complicated and intersectional approaches to gender and sexual equity in schools. With a particular focus on activist educators, I illustrate their strategic and deliberate engagements with counter hegemonic (critical race, feminist, queer, etc.) discourses, which challenge the predominance of specific neoliberal governance technologies. I argue that the curricular approaches of activist teachers in schools, creates, extends and maintains important pedagogical spaces for youth and staff to engage with the Òdemocratic progressiveÓ (Carlson, 2005) possibilities of schools despite the predominant constraints of a neoliberal imaginary of schooling. Reflections On the Philadelphia Meeting By Jayne Malenfant This yearÕs conference in Philadelphia was exciting and thought-provoking. It was the second SSSP I have attended, with last yearÕs in MontrŽal being my first time presenting at a large academic conference.ÊPhilly was a vibrant city that provided opportunities to meet new institutional ethnographers and to get to know others much better. After spending much of the year in a small bubble of, often, isolated work, SSSP has already found a concrete place in my academic heart for a supportive and engaging community of scholars who support, push and question one another. Within the I.E.Division, there were many topics that approached difficult and urgent social problems with care, attention and activism. Discussions with other scholars at times confirmed ideas of how I work with I.E.Êin my own research, and at other times challenged and shifted how I have been imagining my work. I was grateful to sit on the committee for the Dorothy E. Smith Award for ScholarÊActivismÊand was blown away by the complex and necessary work of award winner Alison Fisher. I left Philadelphia with new friends and new ideas to bring to my scholarship, and am certain that next yearÕs meeting in New York will be an opportunity to explore the work of scholars in this division further.Ê Special Open Lecture by Dorothy Smith The Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto hosted a special lecture by Dorothy Smith Dr. Dorothy Smith Dr. Daniel Grace On November 5, 2018, SBHS hosted an open lecture and dialogue with Dr. Dorothy E. Smith. One hundred and ninety-six people registered for this special event that was sponsored by SBHS and the DeanÕs office at the DLSPH. Opening remarks were provided by Dr. Daniel Grace and Dr. Eric Mykhalovskiy to help contextualize Dr. SmithÕs body of scholarship and her ongoing impact on public health research. Dr. SmithÕs dynamic lecture reviewed core elements of IE and the development of this critical research tradition. Discussant reflections were provided by Dr. Fiona Webster which were followed by a vibrant exchange of comments and questions by the audience. After the event, Dr. Grace hosted a dinner with Dr. Smith for a small group of graduate students who are applying IE in their doctoral and postdoctoral research. A video of Dr. SmithÕs lecture is available on the Dalla Lana School of Public Health YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOO9fLT9r-Q&t=4648s Call for IE Division Awards George W. Smith Graduate Student Paper Competition Deadline January 31, 2019 TheÊInstitutional Ethnography DivisionÊsolicits papersÊfor its 2019 George W. Smith Graduate Student Paper Competition.ÊTo be considered, papers should advance institutional ethnography scholarship either methodologically or through a substantive contribution.ÊFor an overview of institutional ethnography and the purposes of the IE Division, seeÊhttps://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/1236/m/464.ÊAuthors must be currently enrolled graduate students or have graduated within the last 12 months.ÊÊSubmissions are to be 25 pages long or less, excluding notes, references and tables, and be submitted in Word-compatible format, in 12-point Times New Roman font.ÊAn electronic letter from the studentÕs supervisor attesting to the lead authorÕs student status must accompany the submission.ÊThe recipient will receive a monetary prize of $100, a plaque of recognition, student membership, conference registration, and an opportunity to present the winning paper at the (2019) SSSP meetings.ÊÊThe winner of the 2019 paper will be invited to sit on the adjudicating panel for the 2020 paper submissions.ÊÊPlease note that any paper submitted for consideration for the George W. Smith Graduate Student Paper Award must also be submitted to be presented at the 2019 meeting of the SSSP.ÊÊSend submission to ALL the following members of the 2019 review committee: Alison Fisher Alison_Fisher@edu.yorku.ca Naomi Nichols (committee chair)Ênaomi.nichols@mcgill.caÊ Christina WeberÊchristina.d.weber@ndsu.eduÊ Please be aware that a paper submission may only be submitted to one division Dorothy E. Smith Award for Scholar Activism Deadline: April 1, 2019 TheÊInstitutional Ethnography DivisionÊis pleased to solicit nominations for the 2019 Dorothy E. Smith Award for Scholar-Activism. This award recognizes the activities of an individual or group who has made substantial contributions to institutional ethnographic scholar-activism in either a single project or some longer trajectory of work. The contributions may involve IE research conducted and used for activist ends, or it may involve activist efforts that have drawn upon or contributed to IE scholarship.Ê The award committee invites members of the Division to send a one-page statement describing the contributions of the nominee to: Matthew Strang atÊÊmatthew.strang@gmail.com Alison Fisher atÊAlison_Fisher@edu.yorku.caÊ Jayne MalenfantÊÊjayne.malenfant@mail.mcgill.caÊÊ Members News and Notes Dorothy SmithÕs fascinating and informative conversation with Grainne Kearney, a participant at the annual workshop she convenes with Susan Turner in Toronto, and colleagues was published in Social Theory and Health. The full citation is: ÒInstitutionalÊEthnography: A Sociology of DiscoveryÑin Conversation with Dorothy Smith,Ó Aug. 2017, 6: 292-396. Others in the conversation were Michael K. Corman, Gerard J. Gormley, Nigel D. Hart, and Jennifer L. Johnston. Daniel Grace was namedÊCanada Research Chair in Sexual and Gender Minority Health. For more information please consult: Êhttp://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/2018/11/three-dlsph-faculty-receive-canada-research-chairs/Ê Marie L. Campbell and Janet M. Rankin published an article in 2017: ÒNurses and Electronic Health Records in a Canadian Hospital: Examining the Social Organisation and Programmed Use of Digitised Nursing Knowledge,Ó Sociology of Health & Illness 39: 365Ð379. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12489 Naomi Nichols and Jessica Braimoh published an article: 2018. ÒCommunity Safety, Housing Precariousness and Processes of Exclusion: An Institutional Ethnography from the Standpoints of Youth in an ÔUnsafeÕ Urban Neighborhood,Ó Critical Sociology 44:157-p172. Charlotte Ross and her colleagues published a paper: Charlotte A. Ross, Sonya L. Jakubec, Nicole S. Berry, and Victoria Smye, 2018. ÒÕA Two Glass of Wine ShiftÕ: Dominant Discourses and the Social Organization of NursesÕ Substance Use,Ó Global Qualitative Nursing Research 5: 1Ð12. DOI: 10.1177/2333393618810655 Lauren EastwoodÕs new book Negotiating the Environment: Civil Society, Globalisation and the UN published by Routledge, UK, in November 2018 was reviewed by Marie Campbell: Years of attendance at UN sessions where Lauren Eastwood participated as a member of a non-governmental organization or as a researcher, or both, have gone into the making of this remarkable book. It introduces readers to the carefully structured actualities of negotiating UN policy that focuses on saving the planet from human-caused and increasingly lethal environmental degradation. While the worthiness of the policy goal is broadly recognized, its specificities, as Eastwood makes clear, are highly contested: Ònegotiating the environmentÓ therefore brings participants with different commitments into tense, sometimes conflictual, confrontation. EastwoodÕs research uses ethnography to interrogate how the workings of environment policy negotiations continue to fail in advancing strong climate-positive action. While her ethnographic observations introduce readers to the sites and struggles, EastwoodÕs story-telling is not simply a strategy for popularizing a complex topic, although that is an added benefit. In her hands, ethnography is integral to her use of the approach to social analysis called institutional ethnography. For instance, the conversations she overheard among civil society participants heading out on a bus toward UN conference venues become data for her analysis. They highlight for Eastwood an easily overlooked aspect of negotiation - civil society members strategizing to more effectively represent their local concerns while participating within the constraints of the UNÕs official practices. How do those rules and their integration into standard work processes transpose negotiatorsÕ differences into formally agreed-to policy texts? The book illuminates the politics of the policy processes by explicating how different views and commitments are coordinated through the production of institutional texts that become agreements, with associated winners and losers in particular policy matters. As an argument, EastwoodÕs findings are not the expression of a theory; they account for what actually happens. The book needs to be read by everyone who studies or works on behalf of the environment. Institutional Ethnography Forum Several members of the IE Division gave talks at the Institutional Ethnography Forum held at McGill University and organized by Naomi Nichols. On December 4, 2018, Dorothy Smith, Lauren Eastwood, and Marjorie DeVault sat on a public panel to address ÒForty Years of Sociology for People.Ó The next day, on December 5, 2018, Hayes Tang and Naomi Nichols addressed ÒInstitutional Ethnographies of Higher Education in Hong Kong and Canada.Ó IE Papers Published in 2018 A regular feature of the Fall IE Newsletter is to compile a list of recent publications involving IE for our members. If you know of any papers, articles or books that you would like to see posted here in future issues, please contact Gina Petonito at petonig@miamioh.edu. Aksnes, Siri Yde, 2017. ÒRethinking Vocational Rehabilitation through Institutional Ethnography,Ó Journal of Comparative Social Work, 12:100-122. DOI 10.31265/jcsw.v12i2.151. Drexler, Olivia, 2018. Disability and Queerness: Exploration of Disability and Sexuality in Autoethnography and Institutional Ethnography, Michigan Sociological Review. 32:133-147. Heitman, Trond, 2017. ÒSocial work in the public services in Brazil - disclosing ruling relations in a local context, Journal of Comparative Social Work,12:123-146. DOIÊ10.31265/jcsw.v12i2.152 Kearney, G.P., J.L. Johnston, N.D. Hart, M.K. Corman, and G.J. Gormley. 2018. ÒProtocol: Exploring the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) using Institutional Ethnography.Ó International Journal of Educational Research, 88: 42Ð47. Parson, Laura, 2018. ÒAn Institutional Ethnography of Higher Education: The Experiences of Undergraduate Women Majoring in Math and Physics,Ó Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research 13: 18Ð33. Welcome New Members Five new members have joined the IE Division since the publication of our last newsletter. Welcome all! Freeden Blume Oeur Leigha Comer Tara Patricia Cookson Marylin Dobson Theresa Rocha Beardall In Memoriam: Remembering Lisa Watt It is with great sadness that we share news of the death of one of our division members.ÊDr. Lai Han LisaÊWatt was a well-liked and respected member of our IE network. Lisa was a passionate scholar and a dedicated mother to her daughterÊLok-YiÊwho became the focus of LisaÕs doctoral work:ÊÒHer Life Rests on Your ShouldersÓ: Doing Worry as Emotion Work in the Care of Children With Diabetes. A tribute to Lisa along with information about donating to a fund set up for Lok-Yi can be found here. https://socialwork.mcmaster.ca/news/remembering-lisa-watt Call for Papers Below are the IE sponsored or co-sponsored sessions calling for papers for the 2019 SSSP Meetings in New York. All papers must be submitted by midnight, January 31, 2019 to be considered for inclusion in the program. To submit, please consult: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/755/fuseaction/ssspsession2.publicView Session 7: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Community-Based Ethnographies-THEMATIC Co-sponsors: Community Research and Development; Institutional Ethnography; Social Problems Theory Organizer: Colin Hastings,ÊÊcolinjh@yorku.ca Session 16: Health Work and Institutional Ethnography Co-sponsors: Conflict, Social Action, and Change; Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Matthew J. P. Strang, matthew.strang@gmail.com Session 33: Disability and Labor Co-sponsors: Disability; Institutional Ethnography; Labor Studies Co-Organizers: Jennifer D. Brooks,ÊÊjdbro100@syr.eduÊ Doron Dorfman,Êddorfman@stanford.eduÊ Alison Fisher,ÊÊalison_fisher@edu.yorku.caÊ Session 78: Sexual Policies and Health Co-Sponsors: Health, Health Policy, and Health Services; Institutional Ethnography Co-Organizers: Jayne Malenfant, jayne.malenfant@mail.mcgill.ca Emily Allen Paine, e.paine@utexas.edu Session 81: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Writing the Social-THEMATIC Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Naomi Nichols,Ênaomi.nichols@mcgill.caÊ Session 82: Illuminating the Social Through Institutional Ethnography-THEMATIC Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Marjorie DeVault,Êmdevault@maxwell.syr.eduÊ Session 83: New Directions in Institutional Ethnography Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Gina Petonito,Êpetonig@miamioh.edu Session 84: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Turning It Upside Down: The Power of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity in Youth and Emerging Adulthood Co-Sponsors: Institutional Ethnography; Racial and Ethnic Minorities; Youth, Aging, and the Life Course Co-Organizers: Lauren Eastwood,Êeastwole@plattsburgh.eduÊ Saher Selod, saher.selod@simmons.edu Session 85: The Social Organisation of Knowledge Co-sponsors: Institutional Ethnography; Social Problems Theory Organizer: Christina D. Weber, christina.d.weber@ndse.edu Ê Session 86: Reflexivity and the Self in Institutional Ethnography Co-sponsors: Institutional Ethnography; Sport, Leisure, and the Body Organizer: Jessica Braimoh,ÊÊbraimoja@mcmaster.ca Future Meetings 2019 Annual Meeting Illuminating the SOCIAL in Social Problems August 9-11, 2019 Roosevelt Hotel New York City, NY 2020 Annual Meeting Program Theme: TBD August 7-9, 2020 Park Central Hotel San Francisco, CA 2021 Annual Meeting Program Theme: TBD August 6-8, 2021 Swiss™tel ChicagoÊ Chicago, IL 9