SSSP SOCIETY & MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION NEWS Fall/Winter 2016 Volume 13, Issue 1 A NOTE FROM THE CHAIR Dear Colleagues. Greetings from Tallahassee! I hope that your semester is running smoothly as you prepare for the holiday season. I have several important announcements that I want you to be aware of. First, our annual meeting will be next August 11-13 at the Montreal Bonaventure Hotel in Montreal, Quebec Canada. Please plan on attending and presenting your research. All papers must be submitted by midnight (EST) on January 31, 2017 in order to be considered. Second, please encourage your colleagues and students to join or renew their membership to the Society & Mental Health Division! Membership renewal is easy and secure online at www.sssp1.org. The benefits of membership include receiving Social Problems journal and division newsletters, updates about the annual meeting, opportunities for involvement in special problems divisions, and leadership within the organization. Third, the deadline for submitting papers to the graduate student paper competition is January 30th, 2017 (see below). Fourth, the deadline for nominations for the James R. Greenley Award for distinguished contributions to the sociology of mental health is April 1, 2017 (see below). Please nominate yourself or a colleague. Finally, we need to elect a new Division Chair in 2015. Please send me the names of any potential nominees so that I can review submissions and finalize names to submit to the SSSP home office. My email address is jrtaylor@fsu.edu. I look forward to hearing from you, John Taylor, 2015-2017 Society & Mental Health Division Chair, Florida State University SOCIETY AND MENTAL HEALTH DIVISION GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION Deadline: 1/30/17 The Society and Mental Health Division announces the 2016 Graduate Student Paper Competition. Papers should involve an empirical analysis, either qualitative or quantitative, dealing with any aspect of the sociology of mental health. To be eligible, a paper must have been written during 2015 or 2016, and it may not be published or accepted for publication. Papers that have been presented at a professional meeting, submitted for presentation at a professional conference, or are under review for publication are eligible. Papers must be student-authored. They may be single authored by the student or co-authored by more than one student, but may not be co-authored by a faculty member or other nonstudent. Papers must not exceed 28 pages including all notes, references, and tables. Please note that your paper may only be submitted to one division competition. To submit your paper for consideration, send two online copies to: John Taylor (jrtaylor@fsu.edu).Ê Please include (1) a cover letter indicating that you are submitting your paper for the competition; and (2) a letter from your advisor that certifies your graduate-student status and offers some brief comments about your work. In addition, authors are required to submit their papers through the annual meeting Call for Papers online system. The winner will be announced at the 2016 Annual Meeting and will receive a $100 cash award, conference registration and student membership. JAMES R. GREENLEY AWARD Deadline: 4/1/17 The Society and Mental Health Division invites nominations for the 2017 James R. Greenley Award for distinguished contributions to the sociology of mental health. With this award, the Division seeks to recognize individuals who have distinguished careers and made a significant impact on the field through their scholarship, teaching, and community involvement. Previous award winners include Peter Conrad, Bruce Link, Thomas Scheff, Walter Gove, R. Jay Turner, Bruce Dohrenwend, William Avison, Virginia Hiday, Eric Wright, Jo Phelan, Peggy Thoits, and Jane McLeod. Nominations, including a letter of nomination and a copy of the nominees CV, should be sent via email to John Taylor (jrtaylor@fsu.edu) by April 1, 2017. The winner of the 2016 award will be notified in June and the award will be presented at the Society and Mental Health Division’s annual Business Meeting in Seattle. RECRUIT YOUR COLLEAGUES AND STUDENTS TO SSSP Please encourage your colleagues and students to join or renew their membership to the Society & Mental Health Division! Membership renewal is easy and secure online at www.sssp1.org. The benefits of membership include receiving Social Problems journal and division newsletters, updates about the annual meeting, opportunities for involvement in special problems divisions, and leadership within the organization. ANNOUNCEMENTS BE A MEETING MENTOR!

Each year, SSSP has lots of students and new members sign up for its meeting mentoring program.  But the only way people can offer to be mentors is when they register for the meeting, and it’s easy for folks to forget to do that, so there aren’t enough volunteers.   Because there aren’t enough mentors, it is hard to match the interests of willing mentors with people who want mentoring.

I’m chairing the Lee Student Support Fund Committee (the group in charge of the mentoring program).  I want to locate willing mentors from all of SSSP divisions.  If you are planning to attend next year’s meeting in Montreal, and if you’d be willing to serve as a mentor, please send me an email message (joelbest@udel.edu).  In your message, list the divisions that interest you.    I’ll save your information and, next summer, I’ll try and identify (hopefully no more than one or two) mentees who share your interests.

I’ve been a mentor every year since the program started, and I continue to keep in touch with some of those people.  It is a great program, but we need your help to make it stronger.

Thanks,

  Joel Best (joelbest@udel.edu) Publication announcement: Barron, G. R. S. (2016). The Alberta Mental Health Act 2010 and Revolving Door Syndrome: Control, Care, and Identity in Making up People. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie, 53(3), 290–315. The paper examines the characterization of 'revolving door syndrome' from public discourse and it's travels through government engagement processes to official recognition in the law. The paper has implications for ethics and stigma, particularly in relation to questions of care, treatment, control, but also for how we understand and categorize mental illness collectively.  THANKS TO OUR NEWSLETTER EDITOR! Thanks to Catherine Tan, Ph.D. Candidate at the Brandies University Sociology Department, for her time and efforts serving as the Society and Mental Health Division Newsletter Editor. Thanks Catherine!