Message from the Chair PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEWSLETTER Social Problems Theory News Greetings, Although it seems like just yesterday that we were in Boston for the 2008 meeting, it is already time to start thinking about the 2009 meeting in San Francisco (August 7-9). The theme of next year’s meeting is “Race, Ethnicity and the Continuing Problem of the Color Line.” In this issue of Social Problems Theory News you will find several items related to next year’s meeting. First of all, there is a listing of the 2009 divisional and co-sponsored paper sessions. Please submit papers on-line by midnight on January 31. This issue also includes the initial call for papers for the 2009 Student Paper Competition. I want to thank the committee members, Mark Cohen (chair), Tim Berard and Amir Marvasti for volunteering to serve on this committee. For the first time, the division will be sponsoring an Outstanding Article Award. This award will rotate as a book award one year and an article award the next. Please see the call for submissions on page four. Thank you to Joel Best (chair), Kendal Broad and Wayne Brekhus for volunteering to serve on this committee. Check out the new column called “Work in Progress.” In this issue we hear from Christina Braidotti, a doctoral candidate at Northeastern University who is theorizing cultural resistance to trauma. Please consider submitting a brief description of your work for consideration for the spring newsletter. Check out page six to see what your colleagues have been up to. You might send them a congratulatory note or request that your libraries purchase their books. And last, but certainly not least, please nominate yourself or a colleague for co-division chair. At the summer meeting, it was decided that having an election every year instead of every two years would allow the incoming chair to “learn the ropes” before taking on the full responsibility of chair in her or his second year. Lara Foley November 2008 Submissions of all sorts are welcome! From comments and calls for papers, to brief analyses and critiques related to Social Problems Theory. Let us know your reactions to this newsletter, the events at the annual meetings, or inform us of your new work so we can help spread the word. Lara Foley lara-foley@utulsa.edu Inside this issue: Message From the Chair 1 Please Contribute to the Newsletter 1 2009 Paper Sessions 2-3 2009 Student Competition Call for Papers 4 2009 Outstanding Article Call for Papers 4 WORK IN PROGRESS: Notes on Theorizing Cultural Resilience by Christina Braidotti 5 Announcements and Call for Co-Chair Nominations 6 Theory Division Chair 2008-2010 Lara Foley Department of Sociology University of Tulsa Tulsa, OK 74104 918-631-20050 lara-foley@utulsa.edu Society for the Study of Social Problems Fall 2008    Thematic Session The Problem of New Racisms: Theorizing the Changing Nature of Racism Organizer: Tim Berard Kent State University 2009 Social Problems Theory Division Sessions in San Francisco Invited Session Theoretical Conversations: Advancing into the 21st Century Co-Organizers: Panel members will offer short remarks on new and possible developments in social problems theory, to be followed by an open discussion of the session topic. Page # Social Problems Theory News Roundtables co-sponsored with Race and Ethnic Minorities Public Discourse of Racial Inequality Organizer: Scott Harris  St. Louis University Co-sponsored Session with Crime and Delinquency Theorizing Crime Stories Organizer: Jack Spencer Purdue University Co-sponsored Session with Teaching Social Problems and Disabilities Representing Disabilities in Social Problems Textbooks Organizer: Kathe Lowney Valdosta State University Page # Fall 2008 Deadline: 4/15/09 The Social Problems Theory Division invites papers for its annual Student Paper Award Competition. To be eligible, papers must be authored or co-authored by students, have relevance to social problems theory, and cannot have been accepted for publication. Papers co-authored with faculty are not eligible. Self nominations are welcome. Please limit manuscripts to 8,000 words (not including references). Subject to budgetary approval, we anticipate the winner will receive a cash prize, membership dues, meeting registration fees, and a banquet ticket for the 2009 annual meeting. The winner will also be invited to present her or his paper at the 2009 SSSP meetings.  Please send submissions as email attachments to the Student Paper Competition Committee Chair, Mark Cohan (Seattle University), mcohan@seattleu.edu. The other committee members are Tim Berard (Justice Studies, Kent State University, USA) and Amir Marvasti (Penn State Altoona). 2009 Student Competition Call For Papers 2009 Outstanding Article Competition Call for Papers Deadline 2/15/09 The Social Problems Theory Division announces its inaugural Outstanding Article Award. The goal of this award is to encourage and recognize scholarship in the area of social problems theory. Eligible articles must have been published within three years of the meeting (2006-2009 for this year’s award). Single or multiple-authored articles will be accepted. Authors are encouraged to nominate their own work. Nominees must be members of SSSP. Electronic submissions are preferred if possible. Please send full publication information along with a copy of the article to the Chair of the Outstanding Article Award Committee, Joel Best (University of Delaware) joelbest@UDel.Edu, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, 322 Smith Hall, Newark, DE 19716. Other committee members include Wayne Brekhus (University of Missouri) and Kendal Broad (University of Florida). Page # Social Problems Theory News I would like to work on and then propose a theory – expanding out from the Yale Cultural Trauma theory – of Cultural Resilience. I am interested in knowing what traumatized people do – individually but also as a group – after they are traumatized by war, violent conflict, terrorist acts, they arise from the rubble, shake themselves off, and are faced with making choices and decisions. What goals and objectives do they ponder, what steps do they take toward their healing and life improvement, what behaviors do they manifest? In cultural trauma, we consider the identity of the individual and of the group in terms of how trauma shapes identity. Also, the authors of this theory concur that there is a new component to this type of trauma: “This new scientific concept also illuminates an emerging domain of social responsibility and political action.” (Alexander et. al, p.1). Resilience has been defined by psychology. A current, standard definition is: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. The first question of concern is whether or not the new cultural trauma theory conflates trauma with response to trauma. I see them as two different phenomena. Resilience can be conceptualized as a consequence of trauma. Neil Smelser proposes that “At the psychological level, the active elements in both the traumatic situation and the process of coping with are negative effects.” I do not disagree with this, however, I would add that resilience itself is a positive effect. It crystalizes the transformation of the trauma victim into an agent who assumes a responsibility to seek improvement in his/her life. The same can be applied to the group or community. Source mentioned: Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Alexander, J. C., Eyerman, R., Giesen, B., Smelser, N. J., Sztompka, P. (2004). Berkeley: University of California Press. Christina Bradotti is a Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University. Notes on Theorizing Cultural Resilience By Christina Braidotti Page # Fall 2008 Co-sponsored Session with Disabilities and Health, Health Policies and Health Services Theorizing about Chronic Illness and Disability Organizer: Alexis Bender Jim Holstein Marquette University Joel Best University of Delaware Member News Allen Shelton published Dreamworlds of Alabama. (2007, University of Minnesota Press). Lara Foley published Gendering Bodies (2007, Rowman and Littlefield ) with co-authors Sara Crawley and Constance Shehan . Ronald Berger published Hoop Dreams on Wheels: Disability and the Competitive Wheelchair Athlete (2009, Routledge). Jaber Gubrium and Jim Hostein published Analyzing Narrative Reality (2008, Sage Publication). Joachim Savelsberg was recently named Fellow of the American Society of Criminology. Two recent publications include: “Law and Collective Memory,” with Ryan D. King. 2007. Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences, 3 and “Punitiveness in Cross-national Comparison: Toward a Historically and Institutionally Founded Multi-Factorial Approach.” 2008. In International Perspectives on Punitivity, H. Kury and Th. N. Ferdinand, eds. Bochum: Brockmeyer Barbara Trepagnier was recently invited onto the Texas Task Force on Racial Disproportionality, sponsored by Child Protective Services. WORK IN PROGRESS 1. The ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy. 2. The property of a material that enables it to resume its original shape or position after being bent, stretched, or compressed; elasticity. CO-CHAIR ELECTIONS—Call for Nominations We will be having an election in the spring for a division co-chair. The in-coming chair and the current chair will now overlap for one year, allowing the new chair to be better prepared for his or her role. Nomination were requested initially at the divisional meetings in August and then via e-mail to the membership. This is the final call for nominations. You can nominate yourself or others by e-mailing Lara Foley at lara-foley@utulsa.edu. The deadline is December 15, 2008. After the mythological Phoenix arose from the ashes, what did it do then?