SSSP 2026 Annual Meeting
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM
New Member Breakfast
Room: Gershwin Ballroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Anti-Harassment Committee, 2025-26 & 2026-27
Room: Booth Boardroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Program Co-Chairs, 2026-27 Meeting with the President and Administrative Officer
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Session 032: Invisible Families
Room: Broadway I
Sponsors: Family, Aging, and Youth
Poverty, Class, and Inequality
Organizer, Presider &
Discussant: Tia M. Dickerson, Columbia University
Description: This session focuses on diversity within family life, highlighting forms of family beyond the white, middle-class, heteronormative households that receive the bulk of attention in family research. We welcome submissions that address topics such as racial and ethnic identity in family experiences, LGBTQ+ family life, diverse forms of parenting and parenthood, and the experiences of children and adults with disabilities within families. Work on other forms of family diversity is also encouraged.
Papers:
“Earning Money the Hard Way: Former Seasonal Farmworker Youth’s Entry into Labor as Precarity Management,” Natalia Candelaria Gonzalez, University of California, Irvine, Winner of the Family, Aging, and Youth Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Found Family: Queering Families to Survive and Thrive,” Sameera V. Akella, Stonehill College
“Gendered Sensemaking in Heterosexual Relationship Formation Narratives: A Computational Text Analysis of Online Dating and Relationship Intermediaries,” Cristina Zito, University of California, Davis
“Reframing Adolescent Children of Sex Workers as Care Receivers and Caregivers Using the Southern Feminist Lens of Deep Care,” Anuneeta Chatterjee, University of Calgary, Honorable Mention of the Family, Aging, and Youth Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Shifting Attitudes toward Transracial Adoption in Digital and Non-Digital Spaces,” Colleen C. Butler-Sweet, Sacred Heart University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
THEMATIC
Session 033: Law in/as Crisis: Punishment and the Legitimacy of State Violence
Room: Broadway II
Sponsor: Law and Society
Organizers: Michael Branch, Hawaiʻi Community College
Sino V. Esthappan, Northwestern University
Presider: Sino V. Esthappan, Northwestern University
Description: This panel interrogates how punishment shapes, justifies, and destabilizes the legitimacy of state violence. The papers examine immigration enforcement, migrant crisis governance, and the relationship between economic contribution and ICE arrests, revealing tensions between labor demand and deportation regimes. Panelists will also address the ways in which state violence is normalized through bureaucratic practice and public discourse, even as affected communities question, reinterpret, and resist its authority.
Papers:
“‘Money Instead of Change’: How Civil Compensation for Police Violence Shapes Litigants’ Views of the State,” Solome Solomon Haile, Princeton University, Winner of the Law and Society Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Examining the Relationship between Immigrant Economic Contributions and ICE Arrests,” Maeve E. Donnelly, Florida State University
“Lessons Learned: Government Response to the Migrant Crisis,” Edwin Grimsley, Felicia Arriaga, Masooma Amin, Daisy Flores and Nishanthini Mahendran, Baruch College, CUNY
“Making a Worker: Manufacturing Consent for Penal Labor through News Media Coverage of Incarcerated Women Firefighters,” Raquel Guzman Delerme, University of Southern California
“The Costs of Justice: Assessing the Legitimacy of Fines and Fees in Florida,” Tanajia D. Moye-Green, Stanford University
“Therapeutic Retribution: When Offender Punishment Becomes Victim Care in Progressive Prosecution,” Amelia Roskin-Frazee, University of California, Irvine, Honorable Mention of the Law & Society Division’s Student Paper Competition
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
THEMATIC
Session 034: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Decolonizing Solutions: Lessons from the Global South for the Global North
Room: Broadway III
Sponsors: Conflict, Social Action, and Change
Global
Social Problems Theory
Organizers: Sione Lynn Pili Lister, Arizona State University
Ghassan Moussawi, University of Illinois Chicago
Presider/Discussant: Sione Lynn Pili Lister, Arizona State University
Description: Theoretical foundations for addressing social problems have primarily relied on frameworks developed in, and often applied to, the Global North. Frequently, such frameworks are applied in a colonial fashion to the Global South. In an effort to decolonize this dimension of the conversation, this session centers the theoretical frameworks and social change strategies of the Global South in addressing social problems in the Global North.
Papers:
“Does the U.S. State’s Violation of the National Sovereignty of Venezuela Mark a Deviation from Its Foreign Policy, or Is It Merely Par for the Course?” Vince Montes, Northeastern University
“Indigenous Epistemological Traditions of the Natural World: Coming to Know Nature-Beings and Cosmological Lessons,” Doreen E. Martinez, Colorado State University
“Plantation Politics: U.S. Empire’s Farmworker Paradox,” Alejandro Tovar, The University of New Mexico
“Recognition Without Rights? Public Policy, Social Inclusion, and the Human Rights Landscape for Hijra (Third Gender),” Ridwan Islam Sifat, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
“Red (Re)orientations and the Reels/Reals Line: Re-Indigenizing Frameworks for Unmasking Redface, Resistance, and Indigenous Media Sovereignty,” Rowan Greywolf Moore, Arizona State University
“Tribute Grammar: The Art of Staying Otherwise,” Sarai Richter, Arizona State University
“Reconstructing the Foundations of Social Disorganization Theory,” Lin K. Huff-Corzine, University of Central Florida
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Session 035: Disasters and Health
Room: Manhattan
Sponsor: Health, Health Policy, and Health Services
Organizer, Presider &
Discussant: Virginia Berndt, McDaniel College
Description: Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity, spanning climate-related events, epidemics and pandemics, social disruptions such as war and conflict, and more. The impacts of disasters on health, healthcare, and health policy are substantial. Social vulnerability perspectives suggest that disasters disproportionately affect marginalized populations by exacerbating preexisting inequalities in disaster contexts. This session includes papers examining disasters and health, including migration, the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness, and environmental concerns.
Papers:
“‘Like a House Fire Every Week’: Urban Homelessness Management and the Dispossession of Life-Affirming Belongings,” Nicolas Gutierrez III, University of Southern California
“Place Matters: Regional and Residential Predictors of Environmental Worry across the United States,” M. E. Betsy Garrison, University of Arkansas, Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Charleen McNeill, The University of Southern Mississippi, Robert V. Rohli and Nazla Bushra, Louisiana State University and Shobha Yadav, Texas A&M University
“Re-entry Is Re-injury: The Consequences of Multiple Border Crossings on Deportees’ Reintegration in the U.S.,” Angie Monreal, University of California, Irvine
“Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 Vaccination Rates: A Comparative Analysis across U.S. States and Counties,” Ting-Hui Lin, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Winner of the Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Post-Pandemic Perspectives on Children’s Social-Emotional Development,” Nicholas K. Stevenson and Melissa Villarreal, Grand Valley State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
THEMATIC
Session 036: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Resistance and Joy
Room: Melville
Sponsor: Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Ying-Chao Kao, Virginia Commonwealth University
Description: Following in the call from Shuster & Westbrook to center joy better in sociological work, this session looks at ways in which, amid a global rise of fascism and anti-LGBTQ+ movements, those of varying identities are engaging in resistance movements. In particular (though not limited only to this), we seek papers which look at how these resistance movements embrace cultures of joy as resistance tactics.
Papers:
“Joy as Method: Black Queer Placemaking in Higher Education and Family,” Amina P. Melendez-Mayfield, Arizona State University
“Bounded Desirability: How Anti-Blackness Shapes Interracial Intimacy among and between Queer Men of Color,” Jyun-Jie Yang, University of California, Davis
“When Sexual Roles Matter More Than ‘Gay’: Desire, Recognition, and Misalignment in Contemporary Chinese Gay Life,” Jiankai Yang, The University of Chicago
“Feeling Categorization: Gender Outside the Binary and Alternative Epistemologies,” Rae Willis-Conger, University of California, Berkeley
“From Doing to Being Transgender: A Collective Path to Inclusion,” Martina Speranza, University of Florida
“Trans Joy as Collective Practice: Filipino Domestic Workers and Sunday Public Gatherings in Hong Kong,” Dongyoung Kim, Boston University
“Resistant Legitimizing Body: Iranian Women and the Decolonization of Moral Legitimacy,” Neda Haji Vosough, Rowan University
“Joy as Resistance: Fugitive Organizational Practices under Racial Capitalism,” Marni S. Fritz, University of Illinois Chicago
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
THEMATIC
Session 037: Teaching Hope, Joy, and Justice: Reclamation of Lifeworlds
Room: Palace
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer, Presider &
Discussant: Hadi Khoshneviss, Rhodes College
Description: As students confront unprecedented challenges—such as climate change, restrictive abortion laws, and the rise of nativism—how can educators integrate historical analysis with contemporary struggles without fostering a sense of historical stasis or political fatalism? This session explores how teaching—through syllabus design, classroom practice, and assessment—can cultivate hope, joy, and justice while maintaining sociology’s commitment to structural analysis. Participants consider how the discipline might offer students plausible pathways toward transformation and emancipation. Drawing on critical traditions, including Angela Davis’s critique of reform as cosmetic and deferred justice, the session asks whether we can envision a revolutionary horizon and articulate its plausibility within contemporary capitalism.
Panelists:
Sarah Jane Brubaker, Virginia Commonwealth University
hephzibah v. v. strmic-pawl, LaGuardia Community College
Kayla M. Martensen, University of New Mexico
Assata Zerai, The University of New Mexico
stef m. shuster, Michigan State University
Evelyn Perry, Rhodes College
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Session 038: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Under Siege: Power, Resistance, and Solidarity in Higher Education
Room: Pearl
Sponsors: Critical Race and Ethnic Study
Educational Problems
Organizers: Amani M. Awwad, SUNY Canton
Christina Perez, Dominican University
Presider/Discussant: Christina Perez, Dominican University
Description: Students, faculty, and institutions face escalating authoritarian threats such as political attacks, funding cuts, and efforts to silence academic inquiry. These assaults intensify longstanding racial, ethnic, gendered, and class disparities within higher education. This session examines how authoritarian pressures reinforce inequality and how communities of scholars and students are developing practices of resistance, solidarity, and participatory democracy. Ethnic studies and other critical traditions have historically played a central role in these struggles, and they continue to provide vital frameworks for surviving this moment, resisting authoritarianism, and fighting for liberation.
Papers:
“‘Canada Is Welcoming, but…’: Racism, Discrimination, and Macroaggressions among International Students in Nova Scotia, Canada,” Eugena Kwon, Trent University
“Equity and Excellence: A Mixed-Methods Study of Research Funding Disparities and Success among Women Faculty of Color at a Research-Intensive University,” Mary Strawderman, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Missing the Boat: Social Class and Extracurriculars in the Elite Education-to-Employment Pipeline,” Joyce J. Kim and Tristan Ly, University of Pennsylvania, Winner of the Educational Problems Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Pedagogy amidst Polarization: Teaching Systemic Inequalities alongside the Rise of Far-Right Student Organizing,” Melissa A. Alvare, Monmouth University
“Racialized Framing in Higher Education Policy: A Case Study from Florida,” Annie Jones, University of Central Florida, Honorable Mention of the Educational Problems Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Racism and Microaggressions among International Students in a Small Ontario City: Implications for Multiculturalism and Global Education,” Anthony Mensah and Eugena Kwon, Trent University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Session 039: Mass Incarceration and Perpetual Punishment I
Room: Plymouth
Sponsor: Crime and Justice
Organizer: Kristen M. Budd, The Sentencing Project
Presider: Breana Frazier, Florida International University
Description: This session on mass incarceration explores the intersection of mass incarceration and the U.S. criminal legal system’s overreliance on perpetual punishment. Perpetual punishment is broadly defined to include the pains of incarceration, extreme sentencing, denials of criminal legal relief, and other collateral consequences that result from a criminal conviction.
Papers:
“‘A Marked Decrease in Detentions’: Lessons from the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Decarceration Experiment, 1933,” Audrey Augenbraum, University of California, Berkeley
“Advocating for ‘The Worst of the Worst’: Alliance-Building in the Movement to Abolish Life without Parole Sentencing,” Kelsey Weymouth-Little, University of California, Irvine
“From Foster Care to the Juvenile Justice System,” Breana Frazier, Florida International University
“God Does Not ‘Punish’: Punishment as Practice and Paradigm of Order-Preserving Violence,” Andrea Beltran-Lizarazo, Boston University
“Mapping Carceral Landscapes: Towards a Multi-Institutional Theory and Measure of State Punishment,” Kendall Riley, The University of Iowa
“Sex in the Carceral State,” Maximillian Calleo, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Membership and Outreach Committee, 2025-26 & 2026-27
Room: Booth Boardroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
SPECIAL
Session 040: Academic Freedom in the Current Climate: A Conversation with the Scholars at Risk Network
Room: Broadway I
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer: Sarah Jane Brubaker, Virginia Commonwealth University
Presenters: Reed Couvillon, Scholars at Risk
Sarah Jane Brubaker, Virginia Commonwealth University
Description: Scholars at Risk has helped thousands of at-risk scholars, documented attacks on higher education in over 100 countries, and advocated for stronger protections for academic freedom worldwide. The theme for their 25th anniversary, “Truth Matters,” is an opportunity to recommit to this work and the values behind it. This session will provide an opportunity to learn more about SAR’s work and ways to increase protection for scholars. We invite SSSP members to come and share their experiences and concerns and work toward solutions in community.
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Session 041: PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Building Collective Wisdom through Intergenerational Scholar Sharing
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Sponsors: Community, Research, and Practice
Labor Studies
Organizer: Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Description: This session brings together scholars at different career stages to reflect on the value of intergenerational exchange in knowledge production, mentorship, and community building. Presenters explore how sharing experiences across generations strengthens collective wisdom, sustains critical traditions, and nurtures emerging scholars. Topics include navigating academic pathways, fostering supportive professional networks, and leveraging diverse perspectives to reimagine the future of scholarship. By foregrounding collaboration and dialogue, the panel demonstrates how intergenerational engagement enriches research practices, democratizes expertise, and cultivates more inclusive intellectual communities.
Roundtable #1 Title: Session: PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Building Collective Wisdom through Intergenerational Scholar Sharing
Presider:
Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Papers:
“Digital Lives, Street Realities: Rethinking Abuse and Psychological Well-Being among Street Youth,” Padmore Adusei Amoah, Lingnan University
“Empowering the Vulnerable: Establishing an NGO to Support Marginalized Communities in Ethiopia,” Yirgalem Kiros Weldegerima, Independent Researcher and Community Organizer
“Learning from Academic Life Histories: Intervening on an Intergenerational Deficit in Academic Mentorship,” Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia
“Lessons from the League of Revolutionary Black Workers for Working-Class Struggle Today,” Walda Katz-Fishman, League of Revolutionaries for a New America and Howard University and Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for a New America
“Living with Stigma: Education and Denotified Tribes in Northern India,” Surbhi Dayal, Indian Institute of Management
“The Pandemic’s Silver Lining: How COVID Improved My Teaching and Mentoring,” Wendy Simonds, Georgia State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Session 042: WORKS IN PROGRESS: Environment, Inequality, and Marginalized Knowledge
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Sponsors: Environment and Technology
Poverty, Class, and Inequality
Organizers: Tanesha A. Thomas, Montclair State University
Nicole Kraus, West Texas A&M University
Description: Environments, inequality, and marginalized knowledge are deeply interrelated aspects of social and ecological life, yet inequality shapes who bears the burden of environmental harm and who enjoys its benefits. Indigenous peoples and low-income communities of color are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, while wealthier populations have greater ability to influence policy. Marginalized and Indigenous knowledge plays a crucial role in challenging these dynamics. This inclusive session is designed to foster intellectual and community-based connections and to encourage both ongoing and emerging projects.
Roundtable #1 Title: WORKS IN PROGRESS: Environment, Inequality, and Marginalized Knowledge
Presider:
Tanesha A. Thomas, Montclair State University
Papers:
“‘Find Easily, Eat Easily, Live Easily’: Food, Foraging, Farming, Isanness, and Civility in Thailand’s Northeast Region,” Rachel Engel, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
“Beyond the Victim/Perpetrator Binary: Subaltern Political Ecology and Human-Elephant Conflicts in Odisha, India,” Lalatendu Keshari Das, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
“Feminist Environmental Justice in Practice: Women as Agents of Change in the Niger Delta’s Oil Conflict,” Oyeintarimoboere P. Azebi and Yvonne A. Braun, University of Oregon
“Global Capitalism, Extractivism, and the Age of the Anthropocene: Challenges from Indigenous Women of the Global South and Their Implications for the Marxist-Feminist Deglobalization Movement,” Ligaya Lindio McGovern, Indiana University
“Visual Case Study of Natural Green Spaces in Chula Vista, CA: Otay Valley Regional Park,” Kevin Guerrero, San Diego State University & University of California, Irvine
“Women, Food Sovereignty and Postharvest Management in Northern Ghana,” Sabina Mensah, Hulda Sakyi and Yvonne A. Braun, University of Oregon
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 043: Anticolonial Social Movements
Room: Manhattan
Sponsor: Sociology, Social Work, and Social Welfare
Organizer, Presider &
Discussant: Agata Pacho, Purdue University
Description: Anticolonial social movements have been a significant force in struggles for freedom and self-determination. Emerging from diverse regions around the world, these movements have been driven by demands for cultural sovereignty, political independence, and the dismantling of oppressive systems. They have employed a range of strategies—from nonviolent resistance to armed struggle—to challenge colonial rule and advance the rights of colonized peoples. Colonization, in its many forms, relies on processes such as objectification, commodification, corporatization, financialization, criminalization, militarization, and bureaucratization. Papers in this session examine how anticolonial movements have resisted the colonization of lifeworlds historically and how they continue to shape struggles in the present.
Papers:
“‘We Are the Answer’: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Advocates Defending Indigenous Lifeworlds and Resisting Coloniality,” Sara Tehrani, University of Central Florida
“Complicity and Resistance: Japanese Feminism and Relational Power in the 1970s,” Riko Kobayashi, The University of Chicago
“Decolonizing Western Biomedicine: Exploring the Role of Traditional Medicine as a Health Social Movement,” Barbara Sena, University of Bergamo
“Grassroots Empowerment Innovations in African Cultures: Drawing on Participatory Research Initiative,” Warner Woodworth, University of Utah
“Stewardship as Resistance to Colonization Forces,” Diana Papademas, SUNY Old Westbury
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 044: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Medicalization and Surveillance of Gender and Sex
Room: Melville
Sponsors: Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities
Health, Health Policy, and Health Services
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Ronald E. Bulanda, Miami University
Description: This session focuses on the ways gender and sex have been medicalized and how medicalization and surveillance enact and enforce inequalities. In this critical dialogue, presenters engage attendees in a discussion of how institutions function as systems of control and consider ways we might reimagine these structures.
Papers:
“A Theoretical Evaluation of the Minority Stress Model: A Nursing Perspective,” John A. Fuller, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University
“‘Connected to Both Places’: How Community-Building Shapes the Mental Health Care Experiences of Transgender Adolescents and Young Adults,” Emily A. Flesher and Meredith G. F. Worthen, The University of Oklahoma
“Exploring the Healthcare Experiences of Intersex Individuals in the United States,” Ridwan Islam Sifat, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
“In the Name of Fair Play: The Sport of Policing Gender and Sex in Women’s Athletic Competitions,” Kathryn Henne, Australian National University
“Investigating the Medical Cistem: Researcher Positionality as Resource and Vulnerability,” Jennifer Hites-Thomas, SUNY Oswego
“The Structural–Relational Ecosystem of Inequity (SREI): An Intersectionality-Informed Model of Harm in Health and Social Service Systems,” Dejamarie Crozier, Howard University; An Insightful Journey and Rita Jacobs, Howard University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Session 045: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Exploring and Resisting Academic Ableism
Room: Palace
Sponsors: Disability, Mental Wellness, and Social Justice
Educational Problems
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center
Description: Despite the existence of policies mandating accessibility in education, learning institutions of all types continue to perpetuate and reify ableism. Educational policies are not made with accessibility in mind but are instead created for certain bodies, minds, and abilities, with ad hoc accommodations later offered—often inconsistently—to those whose needs do not fit these norms. People with disabilities can and do resist this marginalization, yet they often remain within institutions designed to uphold ableism. This critical dialogue explores both the oppression of people with disabilities in academic settings and the forms of resistance that emerge in response.
Papers:
“‘Schools Don’t Give a Fuck about Mental Health’: Mental Health Discourse in a Public High School,” Karlyn J. Gorski, The University of Chicago
“Accessing Help through a Top Canadian University’s Not-So-Accessible Accessibility Office: Retracing a Disabled Doctoral Student’s Accessibility Advising Encounters,” Justin Chen, University of Toronto
“College, Ableism, and the Systemic Exclusion of People with Disabilities,” Sydney Ruskey, Wilkes University
“Dismantling Ableism in the Qualitative Research Process: Developing Guidelines for Understanding Lived Experiences of Disabled Communities,” Jimin Sung, Columbia University
“Diverging Debt Trajectories: Disability and Student Borrowing in Higher Education,” Jenna Maree P. Wong, The University of Texas at Austin
“In Support of the Masked Classroom: Enhancing College Student Engagement, Leadership, and Access through Course Masking Policies,” Atticus M. Wolfe, Agnes Scott College
“Intercepting Sanism in Higher Education,” Gillian V. Bryant, Arizona State University
“Limitations in the Field: On Disability, Reflexivity, and Embodiment in Ethnography,” Allison J. Wigen, Boston University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Session 046: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Right to Resist: Counter-Hegemonic Agency and Emancipatory Anti-colonial Political Praxis
Room: Pearl
Sponsor: Critical Race and Ethnic Study
Organizers &
Presiders/Discussants: C. Michael Awsumb, Northwest Missouri State University
Watoii Rabii, Oakland University
Marta M. Maldonado, Oregon State University
Description: You will not be emancipated by the benevolence of an oppressor”—and so, how shall we resist? This session explores questions and lived experiences of unapologetic and transformative political praxis against oppression and injustice (e.g., colonization, violence, genocide, crimes of the powerful, racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, structural violence) and the political systems that sustain them. Of particular interest are papers that engage the question: “Who determines the ‘right’ or ‘acceptable’ way to resist your oppressor?
Papers:
“The Radical Sociological Imagination: Mapping Decolonial Possibility through Mutual Aid Practice in Political Witchcraft and Kashmiri Scholar-Activism,” Apoorvaa Joshi, Rutgers University
“Right to Resist on Screen: Decolonial Feminism and the Politics of Defiance in Moroccan Cinema,” Hind El Fellak and Yassine Ben Abou, Ibn Tofail University
“Becoming Agentic Bodies Through Embodied Performances: Feminist Memory Work against Political Sexual Violence in the 2019 Chilean Uprising,” Lidia Yáñez Lagos, University of Manchester
“Expanding Antiracist Agency in Organizations,” Fernando A. Ospina and Ruth T. Butters, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
“Lessons from the Peripheries: Resistance among U.S. Territorial Peoples,” Sione Lynn Pili Lister, Arizona State University, Honorable Mention of the Global Division’s Student Paper Competition
“Protection, Care, and the ‘Right Way’ to Advocate: Racial Resistance in Chicago High Schools,” Ana Vasan, The University of Chicago
“Radicals and Revolutionaries: Women, Guns and Emancipation,” Adriana Leela Bohm, Delaware County Community College
“Is This Love or a New Power Struggle?: Malian Women’s Perceptions of Chinese and Russian Influence under Coloniality,” Kadidja Vohou-Diaby, Kennesaw State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Session 047: Mass Incarceration and Perpetual Punishment II
Room: Plymouth
Sponsor: Crime and Justice
Organizer: Kristen M. Budd, The Sentencing Project
Presider &
Discussant: Jennifer M. Carpenter, Georgia State University
Description: This series on mass incarceration examines the intersection of mass incarceration and the U.S. criminal legal system’s overreliance on perpetual punishment. Perpetual punishment is broadly defined to include the pains of incarceration, extreme sentencing, denials of legal relief, and other collateral consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. This session focuses on punishment, collateral consequences, reentry, and the challenges of living in community after incarceration.
Papers:
“Circles of Support for Formerly Incarcerated Citizens,” Esme Lezama Ruiz and Betsy Miller, Marquette University, Eugene Nelson, Project Return and Ed de St. Aubin, Marquette University
“Evaluating Participant Insights on Substance Use Treatment and Reentry Preparation in Jail,” Alennys Gabriella Taveras Seda, Leslie Cuddy, Michael Caudy and Jill Viglione, University of Central Florida
“Examining and Comparing the Specific Needs of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals after Criminal Justice Involvement,” Jennifer M. Carpenter, Georgia State University
“Indignant Citizens: Strategizing Belonging by Family Members of People on the Sex Offender Registry,” Maggie Buckridge, University of California, Irvine, Chrysanthi Leon, University of Delaware, Ashley Kilmer, Towson University and Lucy Nistler, University of Delaware
“Life in the Impenitentiary: An Autoethnographic Study of Mass Incarceration, Perpetual Punishment, and Convict Consciousness,” Robert Northman, Portland State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Budget, Finance, and Audit Committee, 2026-27
Room: Booth Boardroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Institutional Ethnography
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 048: Law in/as Crisis: Legal Consciousness and Rights Mobilization
Room: Broadway I
Sponsor: Law and Society
Organizers: Michael Branch, Hawaiʻi Community College
Sino V. Esthappan, Northwestern University
Presider: Michael Branch, Hawaiʻi Community College
Description: This session examines how legal consciousness shapes the mobilization, interpretation, and limits of rights claims across varied contexts. Moving between post-conflict justice, workplace equity, legal pluralism, and everyday dispossession, the papers analyze how people understand, invoke, and contest law in moments of uncertainty and structural inequality.
Papers:
“Law and Its (Dis)Contents: Legal Pluralism, Rule of Law, and Crisis in Post-Conflict Justice,” Miguel de Lemos, NOVA School of Law, Lisbon
“Mapping ‘The Overlay for the Underplay’: Abstract Law and Concrete Dispossession,” Nicole Trujillo-Pagan, Wayne State University
“Legal Pluralism, Legal Consciousness, and Mobilization: A Theoretical Examination of Women’s Rights,” Gift Onwuadiamu, University of Delaware
“Rewriting the Eligible Tenant: Modernizing Data Protection in a Data Driven Rental Housing Market,” Monti Glenia Taylor, Virgina Commonwealth University
“Emotion-First Theory and Practice: Emotional Intelligence as Foundational Infrastructure for Equity Practice,” Cherise Fanno Burdeen and Alison Bloomquist, EIDEIA Institute
“Perceptions of the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act among UCCS Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty,” Edwardo L. Portillos, Esther Lamidi, Lei Zhang and Haruki Eda, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
SPECIAL
Session 049: Author Meets Critics: Anti-Racism as Communism by Paul Gomberg, Bloomsbury, 2024
Room: Broadway II
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer &
Presider: Alan J. Spector, Purdue University Northwest
Description: The author’s thesis is that capitalist society has processes and structures that create and perpetuate modern racism and as long as inequality exists, it will be impossible to eliminate racist practices and ideas. His use of the word “communism” is meant to express Marx’ definition of “From each according to ability, to each according to need.” The core of the book expresses optimism. The book gives example after example of black/white unity especially in the South, in workplaces and communities in the pre-WWII era. The second part of the book is more analytical as he develops his anti-capitalist, anti-classist argument. The optimism is an antidote to the psychological reductionism of some antiracists but Gomberg critiques narrow class reductionism as well.
Author:
Paul Gomberg, University of California, Davis
Critics:
David G. Embrick, University of Connecticut
Laura López-Sanders, Brown University
Johnny Eric Williams, Trinity College
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 050: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Teaching Social Problems through Experiential Learning
Room: Broadway III
Sponsors: Conflict, Social Action, and Change
Teaching Social Problems
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Jessica S. Pearce, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Description: Addressing social problems and advocating for social justice requires research, collaboration, and innovation. This session focuses on the power and utility of experiential learning to teach about social problems in our classrooms and communities.
Papers:
“Advocacy and Change through Teaching,” Helen Rosenberg, University of Wisconsin-Parkside and Anne A. Statham, University of Southern Indiana
“Learning ‘Rurality’: Student Perceptions on Health, Family, and Institutional Power in North Louisiana,” Carlos N. Chapman II and Junior R. Hopwood, Grambling State University
“Letter Writing as a Feminist Pedagogical Practice,” Julia Gutierrez, Agnes Scott College
“Making Sociology Real for Online Students,” Jessica S. Pearce, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
“Practicing Power: Social Work Students and Advocacy Modalities,” Sara Terrana and Shahira Amin, Adelphi University
“Teaching at the Mexico-U.S. Border: Experiential Learning Through an Alternative Spring Break,” Patricia Sanchez-Connally, Framingham State University
“The Contention between Abolition as a Political Project and Abolition as Pedagogy,” Kayla M. Martensen, University of New Mexico and Libby Vigil, The University of New Mexico
“Time Banking in Class: Engaging Students in Mutual Aid and Community Creation,” Jacqueline Daugherty, Miami University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 051: Medicalization as a Social Problem: A Tool of Oppression and Resistance
Room: Manhattan
Sponsors: Disability, Mental Wellness, and Social Justice
Social Problems Theory
Organizers: Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center
Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia
Presider: Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia
Description: Medicalization offers a diagnosis, an explanation, and, in some cases, even an identity to people with disabilities and mental illness. However, these same diagnoses can function as tools of oppression, used to control and disenfranchise bodies and minds deemed too different or inconvenient by those in power. This session explores how medicalization is socially constructed both as a mechanism of colonization and as a site of resistance, and considers the ways in which medicalization itself can be understood as a social problem.
Papers:
“‘I Could Take My Social Work Hat Off… but, within the Context of Capitalism, That Does Not Feel Like an Option’: Transgender Social Workers’ Experiences of Identity Management,” A.P. Spoth, Evergreen State College
“How Markets Make and Tame Emotions: The Struggle of Evaluating Diffuse Psychedelic Experiences,” Isak Ladegaard, University of Hong Kong
“Receiving a Psychiatric Diagnosis in Adolescence: Appropriation, Negotiation, and Identity Recomposition in Relation to Biomedical Discourse,” Marie-Laurence Bordeleau-Payer and Benazir Rachida Khalimat, University of Quebec
“Seeking Solidarity: An Examination of Villains and the Role a Diagnosis Plays in Posts by People with Chronic Illnesses in Online Spaces,” Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center
“The Medicalization of Pregnancy on Social Media: Authority, Risk, and Lived Experience in Instagram Representations of Prenatal Genetic Testing,” Sara Tehrani, Sofia Lahsaini, Crystal Chanthasone, Donia Fouissi and Shannon K. Carter, University of Central Florida
“The Rhetoric and Ideology of Medical Mistrust: A Content Analysis of the Natural Childbirth Movement,” Jayla Gray-Thomas and Stella Petkova, Rutgers University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 052: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Intersecting Margins: Comparative Health of African Diasporas and Racial Minorities in the Americas
Room: Melville
Sponsor: Health, Health Policy, and Health Services
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Raja Staggers-Hakim, University of Connecticut
Description: This session explores the comparative health outcomes of African diasporic and other racialized minority populations across the United States, Canada, and South America. Grounded in medical sociology and public health, and drawing on a comparative framework, presenters will analyze how intersections of race, region, and citizenship status shape health disparities between marginalized groups—including African diasporic, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian communities—and dominant populations. Case studies will include comparisons of African Americans and recent African immigrants in the U.S., as well as parallels in health challenges faced by Black Brazilians and Black Canadians, highlighting the structural, social, and transnational forces driving health inequities across the Americas.
Papers:
“Applying Racism Trauma Health Theory to Explore the Impact of Racism on Insulin Resistance and Mediating Correlates in Black Populations of the CARDIA Study,” Pu Zhao, Raja Staggers-Hakim and Ryan Talbert, University of Connecticut
“Colourism-Related Experiences, Skin Tone Preferences, and Skin-Lightening Behaviors in Young Adults,” Atinuke Arinola Ajani and Macellina Yinyinade Ijadunola, Obafemi Awolowo University
“Health Outcomes among Descendants of Enslaved Africans in the Americas and the Caribbean: The Importance of Slavery and the Persistence of Racism,” Raja Staggers-Hakim, University of Connecticut
“Reimagining Care and Wellness Support for Black Women: Addressing Collective Racial Trauma, Misogyny, and Violence in the Context of Post-COVID U.S. Society,” Shani K. Saxon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Marya R. Sosulski, Michigan State University School of Social Work
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 053: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Labor and Class I
Room: Palace
Sponsors: Labor Studies
Poverty, Class, and Inequality
Organizers: Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Sara Maani, University of Bologna
Presider/Discussant: Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Description: This session examines how labor and class intersect to shape lived experiences, social structures, and professional opportunities. Presenters highlight the dynamics of working-class life, the impact of precarity and contingent labor, and the ways class stratification intersects with race, gender, and migration. The papers foreground how class is reproduced, contested, and transformed within institutions and everyday life. Session I explores stratification, mobility, and social reproduction across education, care, migration, health, and policy regimes, showing how class positions are allocated, institutionalized, and reproduced over time. Session II focuses on labor processes, workplace organization, precarity, and lived experience. Papers analyze how work is structured, intensified, and governed across sectors, and how insecurity, health risks, and vulnerability emerge within specific settings.
Papers:
“‘Brain Drain’ vs. ‘Brain Circulation’: Skilled Migration and Capitalist Inequality in Bangladesh,” Arifa Akter, The University of Texas at El Paso
“Beyond the Class Ceiling: The ‘Institutional Floor’ and Elite Convergence in South Korea, 1960s–1980s,” HongJin Jo, The University of Chicago
“Beyond the Office: Exploring the Role of Job Satisfaction and Health Disparities in Teleworking,” Taylor D. Sumpter, University of Miami
“Examining the Role of Parental and Personal Education in Earnings Disparities for American Indians and Alaska Natives,” Kimberly R. Huyser, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Sofia Locklear, University of Toronto Mississauga, Madi Lou Abel, Gabriella M. Mota and Dara Shifrer, Portland State University, Ned Tilbrook, University of Arizona, Allison Laing and Mary G. Jessome, University of British Columbia
“Pricing Care Labor: A Computational Systematic Review of How Care Work Is Economically and Socially Devalued,” Waris Ahmad Faizi, Virginia Tech
“The ‘Woman Penalty’: Gender Inequality, Mental Health, and Work–Family Conflict in the United States,” Katherine Maich, Paula Cornejo-Abarca, Zoraya Berlanga Aguilar and Rafia Akter, Texas A&M University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 054: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Where We Belong: Community Responses to Exclusion and Harm in 2026
Room: Pearl
Sponsor: Community, Research, and Practice
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Sarah E. Stanlick, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Description: Many communities are facing divisions over what or who “belongs” and where; what and whose history should be memorialized and how; and what and whose futures are invested in and why. Questions of belonging have been further complicated in the current political moment. This session centers on contested places shaped by legacies of exclusion, violence, and threats to well-being that result from the devaluation of certain people and communities and, concurrently, the places they inhabit. The papers in this session explore how communities are responding to place-based harms, including activist and grassroots efforts, NGO initiatives, and state-sponsored policies.
Papers:
“A Place to Belong: Homelessness and the Counter Third Space,” Sara Brallier and Stephanie Southworth, Coastal Carolina University
“Conflicting Ethnographies of Unhoused Communities on Manhattan’s West Side: A Spectrum Theory of Cooperation and Competition,” Minseung Kim, Independent Scholar
“From the Ground Up: A Relational Account of Migration Governance in Chicago, 2022–2025,” Sophia Costa, The University of Chicago
“Hanging Out or Staying In: Belonging and Exclusion in the Social Life of Students on a Small Rural Campus,” Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University
“Legal Inclusion, Spatial Exclusion: Housing Vouchers and Source-of-Income Laws,” Zehra Sahin Ilkorkor, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Segregated Pasts, Fragmented Presents: Historical Spatial Exclusion and Its Impact on the Contemporary Relationship between Racial Diversity and Social Capital,” Victor Tan Chen, Virginia Commonwealth University, Giemyung Lee and Myeong Lee, George Mason University, Alex Mikulas, University of Colorado Boulder and Sara A. Peters, University of Wisconsin–Madison
“Solidarity in the Streets: Community, Support, and Tensions among Street Vendors in Shared and Contested Spaces,” Arianna Quetzal Vargas, Santa Clara University
“Symbolic Violence and Trans* Kids in Rural Texas,” Nicole Kraus and Shanna Peeples, West Texas A&M University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 055: State of Policing I
Room: Plymouth
Sponsor: Crime and Justice
Organizers &
Presiders: Jennifer M. Carpenter, Georgia State University
Kelly M. Tabbutt, Alfred University
Description: This session welcomes work across the spectrum of perspectives on policing. This includes challenges to effective crime control as well as concerns arising from policing practices themselves. Contributions may range from analyses of police abolition and disparate police involvement (overpolicing) to examinations of insufficient police responsiveness (underpolicing) to victimization within marginalized communities. Topics may address effective policing and questions about the necessity and value of policing, particularly in relation to misuse of force, bias in surveillance, interactions and interrogation practices, and carceral system capture (e.g., arrest). Discussions of the criminalization of immigration and the expanded enforcement powers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are also welcome.
Papers:
“‘Chinatown Will Not Be Easy Pickings’: Private Investments in Policing in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, 1972–2000,” Victoria Tran, University of California, Los Angeles
“Benign Neglect and the Differential Policing of Racially Motivated Hate Crime in America,” Jack Mitchel Mills, Brendan Lantz, Maeve E. Donnelly and Marin Ruth Wenger, Florida State University
“From Enemy Criminal Law to Necropolitics: Legal Mechanisms of Social Death in Brazil,” Nina P. Lins, University of Fortaleza
“Rotted Roots or Bad Apples?: The Value of Institutional Theory for Understanding ICE Operations under the Trump Administration,” Janelle M. Pham, Oglethorpe University
“The Fire This Time: How Policing Holds Together Race, Space, and Time,” Korey Tillman, Northeastern University
“Use of Social Media in Police Operations and Practices in Nigeria,” Muhammed Faisol Olaitan, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Accessibility Committee, 2025-26
Room: Booth Boardroom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 056: Unequal Environments: Ecological Disparities and Violence
Room: Broadway I
Sponsor: Conflict, Social Action, and Change
Organizers: Jack Mitchel Mills, Florida State University
Andrew Schoeneman, University of Richmond
Presider: Jack Mitchel Mills, Florida State University
Description: Examining ecological disparities and violence demands an interdisciplinary lens that interrogates the complex interplay of environmental, cultural, political, and economic systems. This session explores how structural forces—including toxic colonialism, racial capitalism, and environmental racism—produce and reinforce ecological injustices that disproportionately affect marginalized communities across global and local contexts. Papers may address a range of topics related to environmental inequality, including climate change, resource extraction, land, food and water access, pollution, and other forms of ecological violence.
Papers:
“‘Always Hunting for Water’: Everyday Adaptations and Insecurity beyond Cape Town’s Day Zero,” Kanyisile K. Brukwe, University of Cape Town
“Abolition, Emergent Strategy, and Reimagining Relationships to Land and Food in Chicago,” Zachary J. Kyle, University of Illinois Chicago
“Grievances and Greenlash: A Structural Equation Model of Perceived Discrimination, Populism, and Climate Attitudes,” Saman Seyfi, The University of Oklahoma
“Running Dry: The Covert Competition for Water under Industrial Colonialism in Curaçao,” Archana Ramanujam, Brown University
“When Institutions Fail Communities: A Critical Framework for Analyzing Water Crisis Governance,” Katrinell M. Davis, Florida State University
“‘The Dead River Is Killing Us’: Environmental Risk and Reproductive Decision-Making in Colombia’s Caribbean Coast,” Maria Ximena Davila, The University of Texas at Austin, Winner of the Environment & Technology Division’s Student Paper Competition
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 057: New Directions in Institutional Ethnography
Room: Broadway II
Sponsor: Institutional Ethnography
Organizer: Katherine E. Koralesky, University of British Columbia
Presider: Lauren Eastwood, State University of New York, Plattsburgh
Description: This session explores innovative applications of Institutional Ethnography (IE) that address contemporary social issues, shifting political contexts, and emerging methodological intersections. Presenters highlight how IE continues to evolve as a critical, justice-oriented sociology for uncovering ruling relations in everyday life.
Papers:
“Everyday Experience, Institutional Context, and Global Learning: The CRIISIS COIL Model,” Hans-Peter de Ruiter, Minnesota State University
“Insulating Public Health Policymaking: Regulatory Counterpower and Lessons from Chile,” A. Susana Ramírez, University of California, Merced
“Navigating Power and Identity: A Queered Institutional Ethnography of LGBTQIA+ Youth under Title IX in Secondary Education,” Kelley Larson, North Dakota State University
“On the Value of Voting,” Paul Luken, University of West Georgia
“Towards an Institutional Ethnography of Resisting State Violence,” C. Michael Awsumb, Northwest Missouri State University
“When Flexibility isn’t Flexible: How International Graduate Student Motherhood is Institutionally Coordinated,” Fredricka R. Saunders and Laura J. Parson, North Dakota State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
SPECIAL
Session 058: Publishing Tips from the Editors of Social Problems
Room: Broadway III
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer &
Presider: Andrew Fullerton, Oklahoma State University
Description: The publishing process can be confusing at times even for the seasoned scholar. In this session, the co-editors of Social Problems share their experiences as editors, authors, and reviewers and discuss the process of publishing in the journal.
Panelists:
Kelley J. Sittner, Oklahoma State University
Andrew Fullerton, Oklahoma State University
Rachel Schmitz, Oklahoma State University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 059: The Politics of Disinformation and Gender
Room: Manhattan
Sponsor: Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities
Organizer: Kat Fuller, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Presiders: Evansha Andre, University of Central Florida
Shannon K. Carter, University of Central Florida
Description: With the rise of disinformation, misleading narratives in the public sphere have contributed to ongoing societal conflicts. This session explores the role disinformation plays in fascist movements, particularly in relation to gender violence. Examples include anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and the connections between anti-intellectualism and anti-feminism. The session also examines how disinformation shapes public opinion and policy in everyday life, as well as strategies for debunking and preventing the spread of misinformation.
Papers:
“Correcting Gender Disinformation in Higher Education: Evaluating Safe Zone Allies Training as an Institutional Intervention,” Shannon E. Hart, Rutgers University, M. E. Betsy Garrison and Kate Chapman, University of Arkansas
“Disinformation and Citation Politics in Gen-AI: Scholarly Essays on Race Inequities in Cesarean Births,” Shannon K. Carter, Sara Tehrani, Jonzelle Bell, Tara Delgado and Evansha Andre, University of Central Florida
“Crafting Tradition: Examining Constructions of Gender Expectations in the #TradWife Movement,” Kelli Ann C. Kimura, University of California, Irvine and Katelyn Rose Malae, Utah Valley University
“How Black Women Harm Black Women,” Tyshawn Khaalis Smithers, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Disturbing Queer Black Youth: A Systematic Literature Review of the Intersections of Race, Queer Identity, and Student Voice in Special Education Scholarship on Emotional Disturbance,” Jocardo Edward Ralston, University of Pennsylvania
“SORVO: Systemic Oppression and Sexual Violence,” Omny Miranda-Martone, Katie Knick and Michelle Reilly, Sexual Violence Prevention Association (SVPA)
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 060: NYC Immigrant Organizers in Conversations
Room: Melville
Sponsor: Critical Race and Ethnic Study
Organizer &
Facilitator: Felicia Arriaga, Baruch College, CUNY
Description: This session brings together immigrant organizers and immigrant rights advocacy group representatives based in New York City to examine ongoing immigration enforcement, detention, and deportation practices, as well as collective responses to challenge them. The discussion encourages attendees to consider how these insights might inform efforts in their own communities. Participants are also invited to share their experiences to foster an informed dialogue about organizing and advocacy efforts across the country.
Panelists:
Lemmah Nasrati, Community Lawyer
Tania Mattos, Unlocal
Janay Cauthen, Families for Freedom
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 061: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Labor and Class II
Room: Palace
Sponsors: Labor Studies
Poverty, Class, and Inequality
Organizers: Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Sara Maani, University of Bologna
Presider/Discussant: Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
Description: The session examines how labor and class intersect to shape lived experiences, social structures, and professional opportunities. Presenters highlight dynamics of working-class life, the impact of precarity and contingent labor, and the ways in which class stratification intersects with race, gender, and migration. The papers foreground how class is reproduced, contested, and transformed within institutions and everyday life. Session I Session II
Papers explore stratification, mobility, and social reproduction across education, care, migration, health, and policy regimes, showing how class positions are allocated, institutionalized, and reproduced over time.
Papers examine labor processes, workplace organization, precarity, and lived experience. They analyze how work is structured, intensified, and governed across sectors, and how insecurity, health risks, and vulnerability emerge within concrete settings.
Papers:
“‘A Different World’: Precarity Chains, Frayed Family Safety Nets, and Interweaving Substances as Factors Contributing to Opioid Use among the Working Class,” Victor Tan Chen, Katrina Hamilton and Erin C. Tucker, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Cut Labor: Perceptual Fragmentation in the Social Form of Service Work,” Yiming Bai, Brandeis University
“Disposable Products, Disposable Workers: Understanding How Dollar Stores Profit from Poverty,” Tracy L. Vargas, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
“Invisible Labor: Substance Use among Agricultural Workers,” Leticia Morales, University of Southern California
“Job Insecurity in the AI Age: Squaring Predictions with U.S. Workers’ Realities,” Jeffrey C. Dixon, College of the Holy Cross
“Merit as a Boundary-Making Regime: Cultural Constructions of Technological Excellence and Work Devotion in China’s High-Tech Industry,” Lingyan Tu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
“The Household Precarity Index: Measuring Objective and Subjective Elements of Insecurity during the Pandemic,” Emily Bonner, University of Oklahoma, Rin Ferraro, Sam Houston State University and Yung Chun, Washington University in St. Louis
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 062: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Co-constructing Methodologies for Community-engaged, Participatory Action Research
Room: Pearl
Sponsors: Community, Research, and Practice
Global
Organizers &
Presiders/Discussants: Sarah E. Stanlick, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Beatriz Padilla, University of South Florida
Description: In this session, we seek work rooted in community voice that disrupts deficit-based narratives in community-based participatory action research. We highlight methodologies that center epistemic justice through meaningful co-creation. This session promotes research ethics grounded in relationality, challenges the university–academic divide, and interrogates Global North–South divides in knowledge production and social problem definitions.
Papers:
“‘Us for Ourselves’: Civil Society Organizing under Poverty Dysgovernance in a Brazilian Informal Settlement,” Anjuli Fahlberg, Tufts University, Cristiane Martins, Building Together Research Collective, Sophia Costa, The University of Chicago, Ana Claudia Araujo, Lidiane Santos and Joiceane Lopes, Building Together Research Collective
“Capturing Community Knowledge about Reconciliation through Interactive Theatre: Developing Phenomenological Methods for Arts-Based Research,” Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia
“Collective Knowing: Feminist Relationality and a Community-to-Be,” Liying Huang, University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
“Multi-Grade, Multi-Level Methodology: Decolonial Praxis of Education in Rural India from Peace Education Perspectives,” Ashmeet Kaur, Independent Researcher
“Podcasting, Conscientization, and the Rebirth of a Marriage Migrant Women’s Movement in Taiwan,” Hsiao-Chuan Hsia, Graduate Institute of Social Work, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
“Teaching Graduate Qualitative Methods through Community-Based Participatory Research and Decolonizing Methodologies: Strengths, Limitations, and Challenges,” Angela Vergara, University of Central Florida
“Through the Lens of Trauma: Justice-Informed, Community-Engaged Reflections from Cross-Cultural Trauma-Informed Research in Kenya,” Rashad Freeman and Jerono P. Rotich, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Josephine Mwangi, Kenyatta University, Erin Cooperman, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Channa Beth Butcher, E3 Kenya and Priscilla A. Barnes, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Session 063: State of Policing II
Room: Plymouth
Sponsor: Crime and Justice
Organizers &
Presiders: Jennifer M. Carpenter, Georgia State University
Kelly M. Tabbutt, Alfred University
Description: This session welcomes work across the spectrum of perspectives on policing. It includes research addressing challenges to effective crime control as well as challenges arising from policing practices. Contributions may range from analyses of police abolition and disparate police involvement (overpolicing) to examinations of insufficient responsiveness (underpolicing) within marginalized communities. Topics may also address the necessity and value of policing, including misuse of force, bias in surveillance and interactions, interrogation practices, carceral system capture (e.g., arrest), and the criminalization of immigration, including the expanded powers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Papers:
“‘That’s My Tribute to Him’: The Relationality and Disenfranchisement of Black Grief after Police Violence,” Nora Gross, Barnard College, Columbia University, Uzma H. Chowdhury, Teachers College, Columbia University, Betselot Wondimu, Columbia University and Joseph Sanchez, Teachers College, Columbia University
“Challenges of Police Accountability and Data Collection regarding Civilian Complaints in California, 2019–2025,” Alexandra Hiropoulos, California State University, Stanislaus
“Demographic Perspectives on Public Distrust in the South African Police Service,” Emeka E. Obioha, Walter Sisulu University
“Producing Stigma at the Street Level: Policing Overdose and Moral Regulation,” Stephanie Cecava-Scott and Joshua H. Stout, Illinois State University
“The Health Costs of Social Control: A Mixed-Methods Study of Structural Violence, Policing, and Mental Well-Being among African Americans,” Robert L. Peralta, The University of Akron, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie and Joann Xi, University of Akron and Harun Rashid, Kent State University
“Widening the Gap: Identifying a Mismatch between Policing and Community Needs in Addressing Violent Crime,” Stacey L. Barrenger, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, University of Akron, Leslie L. Wood, York Technical College, Insun Park, University of Akron and Natalie Bonfine, Northeast Ohio Medical University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
PLENARY
Session 064: Presidential Address
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Sponsor: Program Committee
Introduction: Xavier L. Guadalupe-Díaz, Framingham State University
Presidential Address: TBD
Sarah Jane Brubaker, Virginia Commonwealth University
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM
PLENARY
Session 065: Awards Ceremony
Room: Majestic Ballroom
Sponsor: Program Committee
Facilitator: Sarah Jane Brubaker, Virginia Commonwealth University
AWARDS TO BE PRESENTED • SSSP Division Awards: Winners of the Student Paper Competitions • Arlene Kaplan Daniels Paper Award • SWS Beth B. Hess Memorial Scholarship • C. Wright Mills Award • Doris Wilkinson Faculty Leadership Award • Indigenous Peoples’ Social Justice Award • Joseph B. Gittler Award • Kathleen S. Lowney Mentoring Award • Lee Founders Award • Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Fellowship • Thomas C. Hood Social Action Award
Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: 7:15 PM - 8:15 PM
Division-Sponsored Reception
Room: Gershwin Ballroom
