SSSP 2026 Annual Meeting
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Editorial and Publications Committee, 2025-26 & 2026-27
Room: Minetta
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Social Problems Theory
Room: Ambassador III
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Sociology, Social Work, and Social Welfare
Room: Ambassador III
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Sport, Leisure, and the Body
Room: Ambassador III
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
THEMATIC
Session 010: Law in/as Crisis: Spatial Mechanisms of Legal Control
Room: Ambassador I
Sponsor: Law and Society
Organizers: Michael Branch, Hawaiʻi Community College
Sino V. Esthappan, Northwestern University
Presider: Michael Branch, Hawaiʻi Community College
Description: This thematic session on law and its (dis)contents examines how law operates through space to produce and manage crisis. Panelists will trace how legal regimes shape access to housing, public space, neighborhood belonging, and basic survival. Panelists will address the ways in which law structures precarity spatially, transforming the contexts of daily life into contested terrains of control and resistance.
Papers:
“Sacred Spaces and Queer Geographies: Spatial Violence in Homeless Services,” Taylor June and Madeline Yu Carrola, The Ohio State University
“Against Evictability: How Tenants Experience and Resist Precarity in the Chicago Housing Authority,” Rahim Kurwa, Almethia Franklin, Ronikia Beane and Sally Schmisek, University of Illinois Chicago
“Predatory Opacity: Bureaucratic Exclusion and Street Vendor Crackdowns in New Orleans,” AJ Golio, University of Arkansas
“Symbolic Violence in the Privatization of U.S. Public Housing,” Grace C. Sementilli, University at Buffalo, Winner of the Sociology, Social Work, and Social Welfare Division’s Student Paper Competition
“The Digitally Defended Neighborhood: Suburban Neighborhood Change, Racial Threat, and Surveillance,” Max Lubell, The University of Texas at Austin
“Waiting for Housing: The Supply-Side Origin of Administrative Burden in Affordable Housing Provision,” Katherine Smock, University of California, Los Angeles
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 011: On Palestine
Room: Ambassador II
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer: Hadi Khoshneviss, Rhodes College
Presiders: Hadi Khoshneviss, Rhodes College
hephzibah v. v. strmic-pawl, LaGuardia Community College
Discussant: hephzibah v. v. strmic-pawl, LaGuardia Community College
Description: This panel examines the history and contemporary dynamics of colonialism in Palestine and the broader Southwest Asia and North Africa region. Drawing on theoretical frameworks ranging from bare life to necropolitics, presenters analyze how colonial technologies converge to produce spatial and representational displacement of Palestinians. Amid ongoing violence and global political debate over rights to defense, sovereignty, and resistance, the session engages critical inquiry into these urgent questions. It also explores the rise of grassroots solidarity movements in the face of state-level denial and repression, asking whether a postcolonial future is possible and what pathways forward might look like.
Panelists:
Hajar Yazdiha, University of Southern California
Heba Gowayed, Hunter College, CUNY; The Graduate Center, CUNY
Louise A. Cainkar, Marquette University
Lila Sharif, Arizona State University
Max Ajl, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 012: GSBPC Works in Progress
Room: Ambassador III
Sponsor: Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities
Organizers: Kat Fuller, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Hannah R. Regan, Flora Stone Mather Center for Women and Case Western Reserve University
Description: This roundtable is open to all topics related to gender and sexuality and their many intersections, especially projects that are early in the research process and seeking feedback or input.
Roundtable #1 Title: GSPCP Works in Progress
Presiders:
Ronald E. Bulanda, Miami University
Meghna Bhat, Independent Scholar and Consultant
Papers:
“Feminist Methods? Virtual Intimacy, Positionality, and Qualitative Methods in the Field,” Lauren Nicole Danielowski, University of Connecticut
“Fempathy? Femme Attitudes toward LGBTQ Individuals,” Meredith G. F. Worthen, The University of Oklahoma
“Negotiating Patriarchy in Public: Women-Only Spaces as Sites of Resistance and Reproduction in Pakistan,” Mahnoor Ahmed and Yvonne A. Braun, University of Oregon
“Intimacy, Gender, and Power in Contemporary Bollywood: Representations, Violence, and Community Implications (2017–2023),” Meghna Bhat, Independent Scholar and Consultant
“Marital Pressures and Well-Being among LGBTQ+ South Asians in the U.S.,” Ronald E. Bulanda, Miami University, Debarun Majumdar, Texas State University and Akshay Sharma, University of Michigan
“Negotiating Queer Identity in Intercultural Host Families: Agency and Belonging Abroad,” Michael Andres Cook, University of Oregon
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 013: WORKS IN PROGRESS: Problems and Issues in Medical Education, Policy, and the Health Professions in a Time of Social Backlash
Room: Ambassador III
Sponsors: Educational Problems
Health, Health Policy, and Health Services
Organizers: Jennifer Roebuck Bulanda, Miami University
Christine A. Beach, University of Arizona
Description: Many current and prospective educators and learners in academic medical and higher education are excluded from full participation based on race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, ableism, sexual orientation, and related characteristics. Yet many employ strategies such as leaning on epistemic communities, drawing on cultural connections, contributing expert knowledge, and resisting and persisting despite historical exclusion. This session explores how marginalized educators and learners participate in medical and health education. We also welcome works in progress highlighting innovative research designs and decolonizing methodologies that examine how members exert agency as they navigate their worlds. We are interested in the potential futures of medical and health education and broader institutions during this period of backlash against the participation of minoritized communities and the implications this has for society.
Roundtable #1 Title: Problems & Issues in Medical Education & Health Professions
Presider:
Christine A. Beach, University of Arizona
Papers:
“Building a Theoretical Framework of the U.S. Academic Medical Center as a Premier Institution and Site of Power: An Integrated Model Drawing from Neo-Institutional Theory and Foucauldian Governmentality, Normalization, and Discipline,” Christine A. Beach, University of Arizona
“Complicating the Health Professional Pathway: The Intersectional Lives of Transfer Students Interested in Health Professional Careers,” Monserat Rodriguez Rico and Nicole Perez, University of Illinois Chicago
“Changing Hearts at Risk Today (C.H.A.R.T.) Study: Examining Social, Cultural and Institutional Factors that Influence Black Males Receiving Health Recommendations for Cardiovascular Disease,” Carlos N. Chapman II and Junior R. Hopwood, Grambling State University
“Cut Open, Shut Out: Black Women’s Cesarean Birth Experiences, 1970–1990s,” Jonzelle Bell, University of Central Florida
“Preparing for Failure: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Preparedness to Care for LGBTQ+ Patients by Healthcare Students and Trainees Learning in the United States,” Atticus M. Wolfe, Agnes Scott College, Lexie Wille, Columbia University and Irving Medical Center and Tess Jewell, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
“‘I Want People to Know That I Am Here’: A Grounded Theory Analysis of International Medical Students in U.S. Academic Medical Centers,” Christine A. Beach, University of Arizona
Roundtable #2 Title: Policy in a Time of Social Backlash
Presider & Discussant:
Jennifer Roebuck Bulanda, Miami University
Papers:
“Racial, Gendered, and Income-Based Inequalities in Health Care Access and Health Status: An Intersectional Analysis of U.S. Adults,” Syeda Erena Alam Dola, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
“Health Care Policy Knowledge and Education among Future Health Care Providers,” Jennifer Roebuck Bulanda, Miami University
“From Policy to Praxis: Health Institutions, Structural Inequality, and Lifeworlds in Jharkhand,” Keshav Sawarn, Indian Statistical Institute
“Breaking Cycles, Building Capacity: Understanding ACEs and Trauma-Informed Practices in Higher Education,” Jill Manuel, George Mason University
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 014: Teaching Research Methods and Sociology Fundamentals: A Workshop for Learning about Open-Access Resources and Crowdsourcing Tips for Teaching
Room: Minskoff
Sponsor: Program Committee
Organizer: Victor Tan Chen, Virginia Commonwealth University
Presenter/Facilitators: Gabriela León-Pérez, Virginia Commonwealth University
Victor Tan Chen, Virginia Commonwealth University
Description: Do you teach research methods, introduction to sociology, or other courses on sociology fundamentals? Join us to discuss tips for teaching these classes in an engaging, accessible way. The authors of an open-access research methods textbook, The Craft of Sociological Research (https://viva.pressbooks.pub/sociology-research-methods), will introduce you to the wide world of open educational resources (OER), course materials that anyone is free to use and customize. We’ll discuss our methods textbook, how to find other open-access materials, and how to integrate them into your teaching. Then we’ll crowdsource ideas for what course structures, assignments, etc., work in teaching methods and other fundamentals. At the end, we’ll distribute the crowdsourced list—and raffle off a print copy of our textbook!
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
SPECIAL
Session 015: Building Community at SSSP
Room: Palace
Sponsor: Membership & Outreach Committee
Organizer &
Presider: Rin Ferraro, Sam Houston State University
Description: This session is designed to build community at SSSP. We welcome new and seasoned participants to dialogue about how to get the most out of this unique professional experience. The Membership and Outreach Committee and Executive Officer will share insights into organizational benefits, and your engagement will help SSSP cultivate the relationships our academic networks seek.
Panelists:
Jasmine S. Buenviaje, SUNY Oneonta
Rin Ferraro, Sam Houston State University
Samantha M. Frisk, University of Connecticut
Teresa Irene Gonzales, Loyola University Chicago
Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University
Jalia L. Joseph, James Madison University
Kayla M. Martensen, University of New Mexico
Abass Muhammed, University of Delaware
Korey Tillman, Northeastern University
Elroi J. Windsor, University of West Georgia
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 016: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Institutional Inequalities: Constraints on Communication, Research, Organizing, and Action
Room: Pearl
Sponsor: Poverty, Class, and Inequality
Organizer &
Presider/Discussant: Nicole Kraus, West Texas A&M University
Description: This session invites research addressing institutional stratification in the capacity to conduct research, organize social action, and communicate both internally and with the broader public. How are institutions weathering political and economic challenges, and what strategies have proven successful in retaining independence of thought and action both on and off campus?
Papers:
“The United States Supreme Court’s Ending of ‘Diversity’ as a Compelling State Interest in SFFA v. Harvard (2023): And the Recent Reemergence of the Contested Public Discourse on Racial Inclusion,” Gunercindo Antoneo Espinoza, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
“Higher Education Faculty and Students-Part of Today’s Working Class Struggle,” Walda Katz-Fishman, League of Revolutionaries for a New America and Howard University
“Racist Bullying and Betrayal in Higher Education,” Angie Beeman, Baruch College, CUNY
“Platforms against the State,” Isak Ladegaard, University of Hong Kong
“Fighting Fascism is the Only Education That Matters,” Corey Dolgon, Stonehill College
“TBD,” Loren Henderson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Date: Friday, August 7
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM
Session 017: Algorithmic Injustices: Effect of AI on Vulnerable (Marginalized) Communities
Room: Plymouth
Sponsors: Crime and Justice
Critical Race and Ethnic Study
Environment and Technology
Organizers: Miltonette Olivia Craig, Sam Houston State University
Marko Salvaggio, Tulane University
Presider: Marko Salvaggio, Tulane University
Description: This session explores how AI technologies affect marginalized communities and the environment. Contributions may examine how algorithmic bias emerges in the criminal legal system—such as in predictive policing, crime risk assessments, and surveillance monitoring—as well as in environmental injustices, including biased resource management and inadequate allocation of environmental resources in low-income areas. Drawing on sociological theory, social research methodologies, and case studies, papers analyze the connections between AI technologies, marginalized groups, and environmental issues while proposing solutions for algorithmic accountability.
Papers:
“(Re)assembling Algorithmic Resistance: An Integrative Review of Research-Machines,” Thomas Zenkl, University of Graz
“Algorithmic Fraud Detection as Digital Redlining,” Mahir Takak, University of Connecticut
“Data Center Development, Community Organizing, and the Perception of Environmental Harm,” Sophia Cimino, University of Delaware
“Lean Start-Up for Data Justice: An Ethnography into the Design of a Community Data Coalition Seeking to Ground Homelessness Policy,” Maxime Goulet-Langlois, McGill University
“Silence in the Summary: Algorithmic Memory and the Public Imagination of the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” Joshua B. Blount, Tulane University
“Unsound Science in Policing Technology: Corporate Resistance to Social Movement Activism,” Gabriel Rojas, The University of Chicago
