SSSP 2026 Annual Meeting
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
