IE Newsletter Institutional Ethnography Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Volume 21 | No. 2 Spring/Summer, 2024 Katherine E. Koralesky Division Chair University of British Columbia katie.koralesky@ubc.ca Send correspondence to: Gina Petonito Academic Womxn Reclaim Your Power Correspondence and Copy Editor gpetonito@gmail.com Jayne Malenfant Editor McGill University jayne.malenfant@mcgill.ca On the Inside - Members News & Notes - Welcome New Members! - Congratulations Doctor! - IE at ASA -SSSP Meeting, 2024 Please complete Katies survey Dear SSSP IE division, I am writing to you from Vancouver, British Columbia, where spring is in full swing. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, tulips are up and lilacs just around the corner. I hope you are all enjoying some aspect of nature wherever you are! This newsletter is full of updates about the upcoming SSSP conference in Montreal, as well as news about publications and recent graduates. We have some great conference sessions planned, and there will be many opportunities to share and connect. On the note of conference planning, I would like to ask everyone to take the survey below. We are trying to get an idea about how many people will be attending the conference in Montreal, gather feedback on the format of our upcoming business meeting, and I'd also like to hear if there are any resources or events and activities you'd like to see organized through our division. I'd like to thank Colin Hastings for all of his help with organizing the conference this year. As well, many others have devoted their time to award committees and planning the conference workshop - thank you! Thanks also to Gina and Jayne for all of their hard work putting this newsletter together. Please complete the survey ASAP, at the latest before May 20! I'll share the results with everyone soon after. https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0pTKGF0IXTEE9Se Thank you, Katie Congratulations Doctor! Welcome to the IE Division NewsletterÕs New Column, where we invite new IE PhDÕs to tell us about their thesis, IEÕs contribution to their thesis and what they are up to now. This monthÕs Doctor is HasmikÊTovmasyan. She earned her PhD from the University of Calgary, Department of SociologyÊin 2023. Thesis title Syrian Armenian Refugees in Canada: War, Forced Migration, Resettlement, and the Collective Memory of the Armenian Genocide What made me choose IE for my thesis: I study the experiences of Syrian Armenian refugees of the recent Syrian war who are also 3rd- and 4th-generation Genocide survivors (1915) and diaspora members. IE helped me to start my quest by entering this interesting intersectional position of complex power relations and see how each of them informs the experiences of people. Thanks to the IE approach I was able to demonstrate how abstract notions such as transgenerational trauma, diaspora, refugeedom, political loyalty, and integration come to materialize in everyday doings of ordinary people, exist only in their actions, and inform their choices and their actualities. It was also very interesting for me to pioneer using IE to study transgenerational trauma, diaspora, belonging and war. Here are a few of my thesisÕs take-home messages: My project demonstrated that the transgenerational traumatic memory of a past atrocious history acts as a lens to make sense of war and forced migration but also a resource which people draw upon to remove themselves from a war zone and to bring themselves all the way to CanadaÕs safety. It made clear that to understand refugee experiences and avoid generalizations that might lead to stereotypes, we need to consider the biographies and histories groups have. My project demonstrated the resourcefulness of refugees and problematized the act of seeing refugees as passive victims in need of salvation by investigating the work that people do to get to safety as they navigate the Canadian refugee sponsorship program. This work takes place within current institutional and policy relations but also, and crucially, within transnational and trans- generational relations of diaspora. Methodologically, my work also demonstrates a case where Òinstitution,Ó a core concept at the base of IE, does not always have set boundaries, such as education, healthcare, or immigration, but can also be something as fluid and unfixed as a transgenerational trauma or diaspora and that it can operate through a multiplicity of organizations and texts across time and space. What I'm doing now: Apart from teaching, I am now preparing articles in three directions: diaspora and transnationalism, the social organization of transgenerational trauma-memory, and the private sponsorship of refugees in Canada. I use IE to demonstrate how each of these ruling relations coordinate peopleÕs everyday world and explains how these experiences happen the way they do. MembersÕ News and Notes Jim HenslinÕs new editions of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, (15th edition) and Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach,Ê(14th edition) have been published by Pearson. Jayne Malenfant announces an upcoming Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education for spring: "For the People: Dorothy Smith & Adult Education," Co-edited by Sara Carpenter and Genevieve Ritchie. It will include contributions from co-editors as well as Himani Bannerji, Shahrzad Mojab, Shauna Butterwick, Hye-Su Kuk, Mitchell McLarnon, Jayne Malenfant and Naomi Nichols. Marj DeVault provided these articles from the December 2023 edition of the US journal Sociological Theory. The journal published a symposium on Dorothy SmithÕs legacy, organized by Prof. Freeden Blume Oeur that recalls an earlier symposium highlighting SmithÕs writing, published by the same journal in 1992. Feminist scholars Barbara Laslett and Barrie Thorne organized the earlier symposium. Both were working in that period to position feminist scholars as worthy of note in the ASAÕs theory section. Contents: ¥Blume Oeur, Freeden. (2023). Dorothy SmithÕs Legacy of Social Theorizing: Introduction. Sociological Theory, 41(4), 283-289. ¥Sweet, Paige L. (2023). The Particular and the Provincial: Thinking with Dorothy SmithÕs Phenomenology. Sociological Theory, 41(4), 290-300. ¥Lund, Rebecca W. B. (2023). Retrieving Materialism: The Continued Relevance of Dorothy Smith. Sociological Theory, 41(4), 301-313. ¥DeVault, Marjorie. (2023). Dorothy SmithÕs Sociology for People: Theory for Discovery. Sociological Theory, 41(4), 314-323. Welcome New Members Nine new members have joined the IE Division since the publication of our last newsletter. Welcome all! Cristina Ariza Wendy Laminack Cash Jiwon Choi Ismael Lopez Rehana T. Odendaal Emily C. Schubert Shaneya Nyasia Simmelkjaer Mariann Skahan Deborah White IE at ASA Marj Devault reports: Prof. Blume Oeur, along with Profs. Amy Best and S. J. Crawley, have organized a tribute to Dorothy Smith to be held at the ASA meeting in Montreal this August (simultaneously with our SSSP meeting). That event will likely be held on Sunday, Aug. 11, the day of many ASA Sex and Gender Section events. Here is the lineup: ¥Monica Casper (San Diego State U.) & Katelin Albert (U. of Victoria), ÒHow Things Work: Dorothy SmithÕs LegacyÓ ¥Monetta Bailey (Ambrose U.), ÒUnmasking the Taken for Granted: Using Institutional Ethnography and Critical Race Theory to Uncover Hidden Institutional RacismÓ ¥Marjorie DeVault (Syracuse U.), ÒDiscovering Dorothy SmithÓ ¥Colin Hastings (U. of Waterloo), ÒWhere WeÕve Got to and Where We Can Go: Reflections on Dorothy SmithÕs Sociology for People and the Collective Work of Institutional EthnographyÓ After a few yearsÕ absence, Marj is looking forward to seeing everyone at both ASA and SSSP! SSSP 2024 Annual Meeting: Montreal, CA Toward a Sociology of Violence August 9-11, 2024 Photo byÊMatthias MullieÊonÊUnsplash IE Sessions Friday, August 9 Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM Session 002: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Teaching Institutional Ethnography Room: Drummond Centre Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizers & Presiders/ Discussants: Eric Mykhalovskiy, York University, Suzanne Vaughan, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University Description: Institutional Ethnography (IE) is an important alternative sociology with a growing corpus of empirical and methodological writings produced by scholars across the globe. Writing and discourse specially on how to teach IE is far less common, despite its importance for the continued development of IE. As an approach that cuts against the grain of established sociology, IE can be difficult to teach and learn. This session invites speakers and participants to critically reflect on the challenges, possibilities, and future of teaching IE. Our aim is to create a context for sharing ideas, resources, and strategies that can strengthen teaching IE as an alternative sociology. Papers: ÒHow Did Dorothy Teach? Reflections on a Memorable Day,Ó MarjorieÊDeVault, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University ÒInstitutional Ethnography, Sociology, and Undergraduate Teaching,Ó EricÊMykhalovskiy, York University ÒIntroduction to Sociology Courses as Moments of First Exposures of Students to Institutional Ethnography: Potentials and Challenges,Ó AgnieszkaÊDoll, University of British Columbia ÒPedagogue and Praxis in the Classroom: Using IE to Teach Critical Thinking in Undergraduate Students,Ó MatthewÊJ.P.ÊStrang, York University ÒTeaching and Learning Institutional Ethnography inside and outside the University,Ó NaomiÊE. Nichols, Trent University and JayneÊMalenfant, McGill University ÒExperiences of Teaching and Mentoring Institutional Ethnography,Ó SuzanneÊVaughan, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM THEMATIC: Session 024: Institutional Ethnographies of Everyday Experiences of State Violence Room: Jarry Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizers: Jayne Malenfant, McGill University Helen Hudson, University of Ottawa Presider: Helen Hudson, University of Ottawa Description: This session will explore the social organization of everyday experiences of State Violence, informed by the work of Dorothy E. Smith. Papers: ÒÔItÕs Literally JailÕ: Carcerality in School Discipline,Ó KarlynÊJ.ÊGorski, The University of Chicago ÒChild Protective Services: Policing, Prosecuting, and Punishing Parents,ÓAnnaÊRockhill, Portland State University ÒMortality Tracking as Data Justice: An Ethnography into a Community-based Data Infrastructure Seeking to Address Homelessness,Ó MaximeÊGoulet-Langlois, McGill University ÒThe Intersectionality of Race, Culture, and Income on Oral Language and Literacy Practices in the Black Communities of Montreal,Ó TanyaÊMatthews, McGill University ÒTopologies of Dispossession: An Exploration on Administrative Data and Reshaping of Racial Capitalist Systems on the Lives Crossover Youth,Ó FaithÊMottahedi, Trent University Saturday, August 10 Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM Session 041: New Directions in Institutional Ethnography Room: Drummond Centre Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Katherine E. Koralesky, University of British Columbia Presider & Discussant: Colin Hastings, University of Waterloo Description: This session features IE research with a focus on using IE in novel ways. Papers: ÒInstitutional Ethnography and the Problem of Orthodoxy,Ó EricÊMykhalovskiy, York University ÒNew Journeys in Learning Institutional Ethnography: Building an International Community of Peer Mentorship,Ó KaterinaÊMelino, University of Alberta, BenjaminÊCarroll, Queen's University, ClaudiaÊCollazo Quezada, University of Edinburgh, AlexaÊFerdinands, Athabasca University, MarkÊHardy, University of Edinburgh and JeffreyÊSabo, University of Ottawa ÒSmartphone Apps and the Social Organization of ÔGoing OutÕ amidst Crises,Ó ColinÊHastings, University of Waterloo ÒSocial Workers as Willful Subjects,Ó HagitÊSinai-Glazer, Tel Aviv University Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM Session 050: New Directions in Institutional Ethnography II Room: Drummond Centre Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Katherine E. Koralesky, University of British Columbia Presider & Discussant: Katerina Melino, University of Alberta Description: This session features IE research with a focus on using IE in novel ways. Papers: ÒGendered Organizations: Higher Education Practices Support Metaphorical Barriers,Ó Wendy LaminackÊCash, Auburn University and Laura J. Parson, North Dakota State University ÒRise through the Cracks: Institutional Ethnography as Praxis for Adult Educators,Ó KatherineÊHardin, McGill University ÒUnderstanding the Gendered Experiences and Power Dynamics that Impact Work-life Balance for Women Faculty,Ó Fredricka R. Saunders, Laura J. Parson, Emily C. Schubert, Cailin M. Shovkoplyas, Lisa R. Arnold and Rajani Ganesh Pillai, North Dakota State University ÒUsing Archival Materials to Conduct an Institutional Ethnography of Prison: Analytic and Methodological Observations,Ó Helen Hudson, University of Ottawa, Winner of the Institutional Ethnography DivisionÕs Student Paper Competition Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM Session 071: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Decolonizing the Academy using Institutional Ethnography and Other Approaches: From Theory to Praxis Room: Drummond East Sponsors: Community Research and Development; Critical Race and Ethnic Study Global; Institutional Ethnography Organizer, Presiders, Discussants: Angela Fillingim, San Francisco State University; Urmitapa Dutta, University of Massachusetts Lowell Description: This critical dialogue session dives into the complexities of decolonizing academic spaces, methodologies, and epistemologies. The papers will showcase how activist scholars center and attend to structurally marginalized voices in pursuit of epistemic justice. Employing anti-colonial, intersectional, and transnational lenses, they interrogate dominant knowledge systems while exploring the liberatory potential of diverse onto-epistemologies and research methodologies. Beyond critique, this critical session seeks actionable pathways, bridging the gap between theory and praxis to dismantle colonial legacies within academia and beyond. Join us as we connect ideas with action to co-create more just and pluriversal ecologies of knowledge. Papers: ÒBlack Agency, Racial Imperialism, and the Creation of a Racial State -- the Case of Haiti,Ó Rodney D. Coates, Miami University ÒEthnography, CBPR, and Theory: Tensions in Sociological Research as Liberatory Praxis,Ó Molly Clark-Barol, University of Wisconsin-Madison ÒFilling in the Blanks: South to South Exchanges of Blackness, (Re)Shifting Research as Resistance, and (Re)Negotiations of Difference in the Diaspora,Ó Masonya J. Bennett, Kennesaw State University ÒIntersectionality in Institutional Ethnography: Adopting a Standpoint,Ó Dara Gordon, University of Toronto ÒThe Lived Experiences of Beauty and Grammars of the Maricada in the Colombian Insular Caribbean,Ó Ange La Furcia, Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, Honorable Mention in the Gender DivisionÕs Student Paper Competition ÒUnderstanding Justice, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEADI) from Perspective of Unveiled Histories,Ó AssataÊZerai, University of New Mexico ÒWhat and WhoÕs Research Is ÔRealÕ: The Role of Qualitative Social Scientists within Medical Institutions,Ó MelindaÊLeighÊMaconi, CarleyÊGeiss and HaydenÊJ.ÊFulton, Moffitt Cancer Center Sunday, August 11 Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM Session 087: Ethnography/Institutional Ethnography and the Environment Room: Lamartine Sponsors: Environment and Technology; Institutional Ethnography Organizers: Lauren Eastwood, SUNY, Plattsburgh; Haisu Huang, University of Oregon Presider: Lauren Eastwood, SUNY, Plattsburgh Description: This session presents critical work from India, Canada, and the US, using ethnographic methods to understand societal and environmental interactions. Issues in this session cover community organizing, institutional violence in healthcare, climate disasters, in both rural and urban setting, on both the institutional and individual levels. Papers: ÒÔRe-emergence of the CommonsÕ: How Central Pennsylvania Communities Find Support and a Voice through Community Gardening,Ó AndrewÊThomasÊSilliker, The Pennsylvania State University ÒConnecting the Social with the Environmental: Bringing Institutional Ethnography into Conversation with Urban Political Ecology,Ó MitchellÊMcLarnon, Concordia University ÒHow Place Matters in Disaster SurvivorsÕ Journey Back Home: An Ethnographic Study of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire,Ó HaisuÊHuang, University of Oregon ÒInterrogating Power and Politics in Community Development Partnerships: The Case of a Grassroots Community Based Organization in Rural Rajasthan, India,Ó PrernaÊRana, University of Wisconsin Madison ÒViolent Space: An Institutional Ethnography on Emergency Nurse Work in a Radically Redesigned Department,Ó SophieÊPomerleau, Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM THEMATIC Session 097: Theorized versus Everyday Experiences of Violence Room: Lamartine Sponsors: Conflict, Social Action, and Change; Institutional Ethnography Organizers: Naomi E. Nichols, Trent University; C. Michael Awsumb, University of Tennessee, Martin Presider: Naomi E. Nichols, Trent University Description: Papers in this session explore how institutional ethnography can be used to investigate violence (institutional, state, inter-personal) as it is it experienced, rather than as it is theorized.Ê Papers: ÒÔBut YouÕre AmericanÕ- Positionality and Reflexivity among Black Researchers Examining Antiblackness in Central/Eastern Europe,Ó Bryan L. Greene, University of Connecticut ÒAnchoring Investigations of Institutional Violence in Experience Ð Examples from Institutional Ethnography,Ó Naomi E. Nichols, Trent University ÒIdentities of Violence, Identities of Healing: Residential School Survivors Represent Themselves,Ó LilyÊIvanova, University of British Columbia ÒTheory and Practice in Peer Support and Community-led Advocacy: Theorizing as a Tool for Making Sense of Everyday Spaces of Violence,Ó Jayne Malenfant, McGill University ÒViolence, Resistance, Ethnography, and Critical Criminology: Working towards an Institutional Ethnography Agenda in Victimology and Crimes of the Powerful,Ó C. Michael Awsumb, University of Tennessee, Martin Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM Session 102: Institutional Ethnographies of Law, Crime, and Justice Room: Jarry Sponsors: Institutional Ethnography; Law and Society Organizers: Catherine Hastings, Macquarie University; Colin Hastings, University of Waterloo Presider: Colin Hastings, University of Waterloo Description: This session brings together critical scholars who examine the social organization of legal systems and the everyday work of those caught up inside of these systems. While the empirical sites that these projects examine are vast, they share a common commitment to bringing into view the social relations that shape law, crime, and justice. In making the systemic violence of legal systems visible, these projects enhance understandings of how to mobilize resistance and meaningful change. Papers: ÒBesieging International Law: The Case of Palestine and CEDAW,Ó Zaina Jallad Charpentier, Harvard Law School ÒCounting Crime in the Isle of Spice: How Colonial Legacies Shaped the Royal Grenada Police Force,Ó Christine Sharon Barrow, Molloy University ÒLegitimating Strategies: Pretrial Risk Assessments and the Logics of Data-driven Judicial Discretion,Ó Sino V. Esthappan, Northwestern University, Winner of the Law and Society DivisionÕs Student Paper Competition ÒThe Social Construction of Justice and Rehabilitation in Family Court,Ó MaryÊElizabethÊUnderwood Hood, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM THEMATIC Session 111: The Social Organization of Medical Violence Room: Hemon Sponsors: Drinking and Drugs; Health, Health Policy, and Health Services, Institutional Ethnography; Sociology and Social Welfare Organizers: Kathryn Nowotny, University of Miami; Colin Hastings, University of Waterloo Presider: Kathryn Nowotny, University of Miami Description: This session examines how medical systems, knowledges, technologies, and expertise reproduce broad forms of structural inequity and violence. Papers reflect on how people's everyday experiences are caught up in these systems and call attention to openings for intervening in health systems in ways that promote equity and social justice. Papers: ÒCarceral to Transformative: Abolitionist Social Work Strategies and Principles,Ó Craig Fortier, University of Waterloo ÒFractured Sue–o Americano and State Violence: Immigration Processes, Labor and Power, and Drug and Alcohol Misuse among Recent Immigrants in Los Angeles,Ó Alice Cepeda, Nefertari Rincon Guerra and Avelardo Valdez, University of Southern California ÒHealthwork at the Office: An Explication of Medical History Making,Ó Manda Ann Roddick, University of Victoria ÒProducing a Licit Economy of Living Bodies: Symbolic Violence and Living Organ Donation,Ó Matthew J.P. Strang, York University ÒWhere Does My Blood and Information Go? Early Reflections on an Institutional Ethnographic Study of Sero Surveillance from Clinic to Public Health,Ó Colin Hastings, University of Waterloo 3 IE Newsletter Volume 21 No. 2