MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Dear Social Problems Theory Division Members, Welcome to the divisions fall 2022 newsletter, my first as Division Chair! Thank you to Paul Joosse for his service as Division Chair over the last couple of years. This newsletter is also assembled with the super work of Rebecca Blackwell, the divisions Manager of Communications and Membership Strategy! What has already made a strong impression on me regarding this division are the longstanding connections and collaborations with other divisions in the SSSP. This is exemplified by the range of sessions slated for 2023s conference (details in the pages that follow). The division was quite active during the 2022 conference in Los Angeles, involved with the new member breakfast and division-sponsored reception, and we had several award winners recognized at the conference. Congratulations to Emma-Claire LaSaine, University of Wisconsin-Madison for winning the paper award for the division, titled Agency and Constraint in Migration Scholarship: A Relational and Transformative Approach, and to Laurel Westbrook, Grand Valley State University, for winning the book award for Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism. We now have a new Twitter account, where general news, awards and publications from our members, and other related items will be posted. Please follow @SPTheoryDivisi1 if you are using Twitter! News may be sent directly to me for posting: madorjan@ucalgary.ca I would also like to thank our members who will be serving on the divisions outstanding student paper and outstanding article awards this year. The first will be chaired by Joshua Stout, with Sarah Werman and Steve Bernardin, and the latter by Annulla Linders, with Kemi Johnson-Pratt and Morena Tartari. Please see the pages that follow for details regarding our sessions for the 2023 conference, and member news. Best wishes for a productive and engaging academic year! Mike Adorjan, University of Calgary Social Problems Theory Division Chair 2022-2023 Mike Adorjan Department of Sociology University of Calgary IN THIS ISSUE: Page 2: SSSP Annual Meeting Social Problems Theory Sessions Page 3: SSSP Theory Division Award Winners and call for awards submissions Page 4: Calls for Papers and Other Opportunities Page 5-6: Recently Published Articles from the Membership Page 7: Member award announcements Editors: Mike Adorjan and Rebecca Blackwell SSSP 2023 ANNUAL MEETING DIVISION SPONSORED SESSIONS Click here to submit through the SSSP call for papers webpage SESSION # SESSION TITLE SPONSOR(S) ORGANIZER 027 PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Restoration or Inequalities as Usual? Restorative Practices in Response to Student Conflict and Harm 1. Crime and Juvenile Delinquency 2. Social Problems Theory Bell, Charles cabell6@ilstu.edu Johnson Pratt, Kemi kjohnsonpratt@twu.edu 033 Social Problems, Theory, and Disability 1. Disability 2. Social Problems Theory Adorjan, Michael madorjan@ucalgary.ca Santinele Martino, Alan alan.martino@ucalgary.ca 040 Social Problems, Theory, and Disability 1. Drinking and Drugs 2. Social Problems Theory Burns, Andrew Robert aburn38@lsu.edu Albrecht, Kat kalbrecht@gsu.edu 073 Theorizing Injustice from/in the Global South 1. Global 2. Social Problems Theory Shapiro, Andrew J. ashapiro3@gradcenter.cuny.edu 082 Intertextuality, Theory, and the Social Organization of Knowledge 1. Institutional Ethnography 2. Social Problems Theory Hastings, Colin c2hastings@uwaterloo.ca Del Rosso, Jared jared.delrosso@du.edu 105 CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Southern Theory: Expanding Theoretical Horizons 1. Social Problems Theory Castillo, Sarah E. scastil1@vols.utk.edu 106 New Directions, Same Problems in Social Problems Theory 1. Social Problems Theory Stout, Joshua H. jstout@shepherd.edu 107 PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Learning about Social Problems Theory: Student Perspectives 1. Social Problems Theory Tartari, Morena morena.tartari@unipd.it 108 Political Polarization, Mental Health and Social Theory 1. Social Problems Theory 2. Society and Mental Health Brossard, Baptiste baptiste.brossard@york.ac.uk Bernardin, Stve steve.bernardin@univ-eiffel.fr 109 CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Using Media to Teach about Social Problems 1. Social Problems Theory 2. Teaching Social Problems Lane, David C. dclane1@ilstu.edu Tartari, Morena morena.tartari@unipd.it SSSP THEORY DIVISION AWARD WINNERS We are pleased to announce that the Social Problems Theory Divisions Annual Student Paper Award goes to Emma-Claire LaSaine, and the Book Award goes to Laurel Westbrook. Thanks to the award committee for the student paper award: Paul Joosse (chair), David C. Lane, Joshua Stout, and Kemi Johnson Pratt. Emma-Claire LaSaine is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her paper is titled, Agency and Constraint in Migration Scholarship: A Relational and Transformative Approach. Special thanks to the award committee members. In this paper, LaSaine explores how theories of agency and structure are commonly used in migration studies, demonstrating four areas of concern in conceptualization that scholars need to be attentive to when employing such theoretical approaches. The author astutely articulates how both intention and impact need to be addressed in agentic frameworks, highlighting the ways this bolsters the analysis of structure/agency. The authors' critique of theoretical approaches to agency/structure in migration research allows them to coherently address these pitfalls, expanding the theoretical discourse and development in a meaningful way. Overall, this piece effectively moves the debate in theoretical frameworks of migration studies and can deepen our understanding of the tensions between structure and agency. For the book award, thanks goes to the award committee: Brian Monahan (chair), Rebecca Blackwell, and RJ Maratea Laurel Westbrook is Full Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University. Their book is titled Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism, and was published in 2020 by University of California Press. Anti-violence movements rooted in identity politics are commonplace, including those to stop violence against people of color, women, and LGBT people. Unlivable Lives reveals the unintended consequences of this approach within the transgender rights movement in the United States. It illustrates how this form of activism obscures the causes of and lasting solutions to violence and exacerbates fear among members of the identity group, running counter to the goal of making lives more livable. Analyzing over a thousand documents produced by thirteen national organizations, Westbrook charts both a history of the movement and a path forward that relies less on identity-based tactics and more on intersectionality and coalition building. Provocative and galvanizing, this book envisions new strategies for anti-violence and social justice movements and will revolutionize the way we think about this form of activism. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520316591/unlivable-lives This year there are two award calls: the Graduate Student Paper Award and the Outstanding Article Award. Detailed information on awards can be found here. Please encourage your friends, colleagues, and students to applyand please submit your own work CALLS FOR PAPERS 2023Junior Theorists Symposium The 17th Junior Theorists Symposium (JTS) is now open to new submissions. The JTS is a conference featuring the work of emerging sociologists engaged in theoretical work, broadly defined. Sponsored in part by the Theory Section of the ASA, the conference has provided a platform for the work of early-career sociologists since 2005. We especially welcome submissions that broaden the practice of theory beyond its traditional themes, topics, and disciplinary function. The symposium will be held as an in-person event on Thursday, August 17 prior to the 2023 ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Please click here to learn more about this conference. You may submit your prcis here. The submission deadline is March 1st, 11:59pm Eastern Time. If you have any issues uploading your document, please send a copy of your prcis with all identifying information removed to juniortheorists@gmail.com. Please include your name and affiliation (University and Department) in the body of the email. Toward A Sociology of Expertise: Histories, Agendas, and Futures We are editing a special issue of The American Sociologist that will contain articles focused on the sociology of expertise. Articles that highlight the contributions that various traditions in sociology have made or stand to make toward the development of the sociology of expertise are especially welcome. This special issue will emphasize how sociologists can develop our understanding of the changing role of, and demands placed on, expertise in society, both as practiced by sociologists and non-sociologists. Articles will focus on the ways sociologist think about or research expertise, the past and future directions of sociology of expertise, theoretical, conceptual, or methodological contributions toward studying expertise, and may range in approach from case studies to ethnographies, historical analyses, or be otherwise relevant to advancing sociological consideration of expertise. Articles of interest for this special issue will focus on one or more of several broader concerns: (1) Probing the contours and paradoxes of expertise as a social construct; and examining the social processes by which the status of expert is assigned, legitimated, or challenged. Traditional pathways involve credentialing and formal education that are legitimated by gatekeeping institutions, such as universities and professional schools. However, these are not the only processes by which people come to be considered, or warrant their status as, experts. (2) The social processes by which formal expertise is defined, legitimized, projected, and contested. Related to the previous focus, this second area of interest involves the spaces and venues that allow for the expression and proliferation of expertise and the changes that have altered their arenasthe historical and contemporary transformations shaping expert knowledge and its diffusion. (3) The emergence and development of refutations or counter narratives to expertise. As arenas and pathways to expertise change, new avenues arise for challenging the legitimacy of experts and the development of claims that counter established experts and expert knowledge. (4) Overlapping with the preceding, a fourth dimension involves implications that the decentering of expertise poses for the discipline and practice of sociology. Discussions examining the role of critical, constructionist, and self-reflexive sociologies in fostering skepticism toward traditional as well as more contemporary manifestations of expertise are encouraged. Abstracts must not be no longer than 400 words by Dec 30, 2022. Papers with accepted abstracts will be due by June 30, 2023. Papers will be circulated for blind peer review and final papers will be due three months after they are returned to authors with comments. We look forward to reading your abstracts. Submit paper abstracts via email to Peter R Ibarra (pibarra@uic.edu) and David C. Lane (dclane1@ilstu.edu). Direct questions to same. NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM OUR MEMBERS Congratulations to Stacy Burns, Professor of Sociology, Loyola Marymount University, for the publishing, with Mark Peyrot, Professor Emeritus of sociology at Loyola University Maryland, a new book in June 2022 titled, Social Problems and Social Control in Criminal Justice, Lynne Rienner Publishers. In this book, Stacy Burns and Mark Peyrot explore government efforts to address social problems in the context of the criminal justice system. Adopting an institutionalist perspective, the authors show how social control efforts have adapted and changed over timeand how some efforts have inadvertently contributed to the problems they are trying to alleviate. Their work draws on a wealth of sources, ranging from case law to popular initiatives to policy analysis, to advance both theoretical and practical understanding of criminal justice at work. Click here to order a copy of the book, which is on sale at the moment! A new book has been published, Crafting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Sites, Selves and Social Worlds (Routledge), coedited by Amir B. Marvasti (Professor of Sociology at Penn State Altoona) and Jaber F. Gubrium (Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri). Congratulations Amir and Jaber! Reasserting a naturalistic pragmatism, the book showcases ethnographic fieldwork as a working analytic engagement with the social worlds of concrete field sites. Featured is a kind of ethnographic presence that makes visibleby analytic hook or crookthe forms of everyday life discovered in the process. While varied in empirical detail, the common aim is to secure understandings devoid of simple-minded procedural tropes such as entre, rapport, and departure. From ethnographic engagements with boxing and night life to preschooling and migratory encampments, portrayed is an ethnographic process that is anything but a set of prepackaged challenges and hurdles. A hefty introduction by the co-editors and a reflective afterword by ethnographer James Holstein frame the presentation. Click here to order a copy of the book. NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM OUR MEMBERS Congratulations to Professor Joachim Savelsberg, University of Minnesota, who published in 2021 a new book (both paperback and open access online): Knowing about Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles, University of California Press. The book received the 2022 American Sociological Associations Comparative-Historical Sociology's Barrington Moore Book Award and the ASA Section for Human Right's Gordon Hirabayashi Book Award--Honorabel Mention. You may click here to buy a copy of the book. A related article, "Writing biography in the face of cultural trauma: Nazi descent and the management of spoiled identities," appeared in the March 2022 issue of the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. You may click here to read the article. Congratulations to Jim Henslin, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Southern Illinois University, for publishing the 15th edition of Introducing Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, Pearson. The book is scheduled for publication in February 2023. In addition, the 14th edition of Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach should be released at the same time. Congratulations to Jared Del Rosso, Associate Proessor, University of Denver, who published an essay in The Conversation, which reappeared online in several places and was printed in the Denver Post on Wednesday, September 28. Click here to read the essay. Congratulations to Andrew Shapiro, a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, who has a new journal article published (Andrews first!): Shapiro, Andrew J. 2022. On PowersDoorstep: Gays, Jews, and Liminal Complicity in Reproducing Masculine Domination. Men and Masculinities. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X221098365 Congratulations to Paul Joosse, Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong, for a new article published in Critical Sociology: Joosse, Paul, and Dominik Zelinsky. 2022. "Berserk!: Anger and the Charismatic Populism of Donald Trump." Critical Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205211063131 AWARDS RECEIVED BY OUR MEMBERS Congratulations to Nadia Kim, Professor, Loyola Marymount University, for two recent awards, both regarding Nadias new book Refusing Death, Stanford University Press: 2022 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Section on Race, Class, Gender, American Sociological Association 2022 Outstanding Book Award, Section on Asian and Asian America, American Sociological Association DESCRIPTION The industrial-port belt of Los Angeles is home to eleven of the top twenty oil refineries in California, the largest ports in the country, and those "racist monuments" we call freeways. In this uncelebrated corner of "La La Land" through which most of America's goods transit, pollution is literally killing the residents. In response, a grassroots movement for environmental justice has grown, predominated by Asian and undocumented Latin@ immigrant women who are transforming our political landscapeyet we know very little about these change makers. In Refusing Death, Nadia Y. Kim tells their stories, finding that the women are influential because of their ability to remap politics, community, and citizenship in the face of the country's nativist racism and system of class injustice, defined not just by disproportionate environmental pollution but also by neglected schools, surveillance and deportation, and political marginalization. The women are highly conscious of how these harms are an assault on their bodies and emotions, and of their resulting reliance on a state they prefer to avoid and ignore. In spite of such challenges and contradictions, however, they have developed creative, unconventional, and loving ways to support and protect one another. They challenge the state's betrayal, demand respect, and, ultimately, refuse death. Book details and ordering: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24059 https://www.amazon.ca/Refusing-Death-Immigrant-Environmental-Justice/dp/1503628175