Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

Session 074: Disability, Mental Health, and Society
Room: Belasco

Sponsor: Disability, Mental Wellness, and Social Justice

Organizer: Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center

Presiders: Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia
Rebecca Qin, University of British Columbia

Description: 

How do individuals experience, create, and challenge identities of disability and mental illness? How do communities come together to understand, support, advocate for, and research disability and mental health? This session explores the policies, institutions, and organizations that shape individual and community experiences of disability and mental health, and how they are changing. It invites a wide spectrum of papers that develop sociological understandings of disability and mental health.

Papers:

“Embodied Insights: Sensitive Practices for Trauma-Informed Research,” Lauren M. Fishel, The University of Oklahoma

“From Peace of Mind to Peace of Being: Operationalizing Inner Peace for Empirical Research,” Joann Xi, University of Akron and Robert L. Peralta, The University of Akron

“Health-Related Visual Social Science: A Methodological Examination of Visual Participatory and Autoethnographic Projects and Experiences,” Luc Pauwels, University of Antwerp

“Named, Blamed, and Maimed: Special Education, Surveillance, and the Regulation of Queer Black and Latine Boys in New York City,” Jocardo Edward Ralston, University of Pennsylvania

“Resisting the ‘Managing-Away’ of Disability: (Dis)Appearing Stories of Voice and Silence in Workplace Accommodations,” Justin Chen, University of Toronto

“The Use of Serious Games in Elementary Schools to Improve Executive Functioning among Autistic Children,” Aisha Maryam Ahmed, Ontario Tech University

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

Session 075: New Directions in Social Problems Theory
Room: Broadway I

Sponsor: Social Problems Theory

Organizer &

Presider: Clara Mey, University of Delaware

Description: 

This session explores new trends and developments in social problems theory.

Papers:

“Rebranding Restriction and Surveillance: Noom as a Case Study of the Cultural Politics of the Body,” Sydney Dyck and Clara Mey, University of Delaware

“Using Culture in Everyday Life,” Amir B. Marvasti, Penn State Altoona

“Cruel and Usual: Recursive Racial Cruelty at the U.S. Immigration Court,” Nabila N. Islam, Brown University

“Genocide Denial and Narrative Affordances,” Lois Presser, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

“A Framework for Ongoing Settler Colonialism Rooted in Indigenous Sociology,” Melissa Horner-Petrone, University of Missouri, Winner of the Social Problems Theory Division’s Student Paper Competition

“Repowering: An Indigenous-Centered Theoretical Elaboration of Empowerment Theory,” Stephen Silva-Brave, The University of Texas at Arlington

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

SPECIAL

Session 076: Author Meets Critics: Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing by Rahim Kurwa, University of California Press, 2025
Room: Broadway II

Sponsor: Program Committee

Organizer &

Presider: Theresa Ysabel Rocha Beardall, University of Washington

Description: 

Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing offers a vivid case study of the national crisis of the policing of housing, told through a history of struggle over Los Angeles’ northernmost outpost, the Antelope Valley. It opens on a place of refuge, exchange, and experimentation, then follows its postwar turn toward segregation and militarization. It centers Black residents who fought back by building Sun Village, an all-Black town and hub for civil rights organizing. After the civil rights revolution, the valley defended itself as a white space, using policing for racialized eviction and exclusion through sweeps, citations, and landlord pressure. In the early 2000s, displaced tenants organized, stayed housed, and forced change through abolitionist struggle for housing justice.

Author:

Rahim Kurwa, University of Illinois Chicago

Critics:

Louise Seamster, University of Iowa

Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, University at Albany

Chris Herring, University of California, Los Angeles

Frank Edwards, Rutgers University

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

THEMATIC

Session 077: Rural Spaces and Services I
Room: Broadway III

Sponsors: Community, Research, and Practice
Sociology, Social Work, and Social Welfare
Sport, Leisure, and the Body

Organizers: Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University
Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University

Presider &

Discussant: Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University

Description: 

This thematic session examines the challenges and opportunities shaping rural communities. Rural areas face persistent inequalities, limited resources, and structural barriers across health, education, housing, and social services. At the same time, they foster resilience, care, and solidarity that warrant sociological attention. Presentations explore structural constraints and opportunities within rural environments, analyze how policies and politics shape service delivery, and consider how residents navigate and resist systems of support. Drawing on sociology, social work, and social welfare, the session highlights rural life as essential for understanding broader issues of justice, equity, and social well-being, emphasizing both constraint and creativity in these communities.

Papers:

“Beyond Little House on the Prairie: How the Myth of ‘Real America’ Shapes Rural Broadband Policy and Digital Inequality,” Jonathan Andrew Kraus, West Texas A&M University

“Implementing a Child Welfare Intervention in Two Rural Communities,” Miriam J. Landsman, University of Iowa

“Our School, Our Community, Our Future,” Casey T. Jakubowski, Utica University

“Rural Evictions in North Carolina: Analyzing Hotspots of Housing Precarity,” Daniel J. Rose, Rachel A. Midgett, Richard G. Moye and Tangela G. Towns, Winston-Salem State University

“We Built This City: Reimagining Rural Space Through Urban Performances of Joy and Resistance,” Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

Session 078: The Colonisation of Environmental Protection
Room: Manhattan

Sponsor: Environment and Technology

Organizer: Angus A. Nurse, Anglia Ruskin University

Presiders: Angus A. Nurse, Anglia Ruskin University
Tanesha A. Thomas, Montclair State University

Description: 

This session welcomes papers that explore colonial-era patterns of exploitation and the extent to which neoliberal thinking has shaped the management, protection, and exploitation of natural resources and Indigenous lands. The session considers how free-market thinking and an anthropocentric approach to environmental resources may weaken environmental protections to favor particular interests, markets, or sectors. We also welcome papers that examine varied conceptions of colonization and contemporary debates about the challenges of maintaining and strengthening environmental protection.

Papers:

“Neoliberalism and Environmental Degradation: Unveiling the Paradox of Progress,” Tanjida Islam, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

“Data Centers and the Politics of Place: Coalition-Building and Local Resistance in the U.S. South,” Emily McKendry-Smith, Neema Noori and Andy Walter, University of West Georgia

“A New Century, an Old Problem: A Nationwide Intersectional Analysis of Landfills across the United States,” Clare E. B. Cannon, University of California, Davis

“Social Capital and Household Preparedness: Unequal Perceptions of Extreme Weather Risk,” Kamala Shrestha, Oklahoma State University

“The Challenge of Waste Disposal Management and Its Alteration through Appropriate Disposal Mechanisms: An Explanation from a Sociological Perspective,” Lini Baruah, Tezpur University

“Using an EcoSociological Imagination to Learn How to Move from a Consumer to a Conserver Way of Life,” Andrew Plotkin, Palm Beach State College and Sociological Imagination Movement

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

Session 079: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: New Trends in Global Migrations and (Im)mobilities in Anti-immigration Contexts
Room: Melville

Sponsor: Global

Organizer &

Presider/Discussant: Beatriz Padilla, University of South Florida

Description: 

This session focuses on recent migration flows and diverse forms of mobility and immobility unfolding globally amid rising anti-immigration discourses and reactions against migrants. We invite presentations examining different world regions, including both the Global North and the Global South.

Papers:

“Affective Survival in Motion: Gendered Migration from Russia and Belarus to Latin America after 2020-2022,” Viktoryia Sliaptsova, University of South Florida

“From Education to Exploitation: Precarious Realities of Bangladeshi Students Abroad in a Migration-Development Context,” Mehnaz Parvin, Florida Atlantic University

“Living on the Edge of Belonging: Racialization, Poverty, and Migrant Lifeworlds in Urban Turkey,” Begüm Ergün, Boston University

“Racial Capitalism, Immigrant Healthcare Access, and the Global Color Line,” Tiffany D. Joseph, Northeastern University and Meredith Van Natta, University of California, Merced

“The Embodied Experience of Crossing and Surviving the Darien Gap,” Monica Salmon Gomez, The New School for Social Research

“Ukrainian War Refugees in Poland,” Nicole Kraus, West Texas A&M University

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Date: Sunday, August 9

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

THEMATIC

Session 080: The Border Crossed Me: Shifting Lifeworlds of Immigration
Room: Plymouth

Sponsors: Crime and Justice
Critical Race and Ethnic Study
Labor Studies
Law and Society

Organizers: Miltonette Olivia Craig, Sam Houston State University
Rafia Javaid Mallick, Georgia State University
Foroogh Mohammadi, Acadia University

Presider: Rafia Javaid Mallick, Georgia State University

Description: 

This session critically examines the lived experiences of immigrants navigating the profound social and psychological shifts precipitated by global migration. Moving beyond traditional narratives, we explore the idea that immigrants are not merely crossing borders; rather, borders—in their legal, social, and cultural forms—actively cross and reconstitute their lives. Presentations explore themes of racialization, belonging, and identity formation within transnational social fields. We investigate how immigrants and their descendants negotiate power, agency, and resistance within these contested spaces, offering a nuanced analysis of the constantly evolving lifeworlds shaped by the relentless movement of political and social borders.

Papers:

“Between Home and Host: Precarity and Psychological Well-Being in the Lifeworlds of African Immigrants,” Deborah Omontese, University of South Florida

“Fugitivity as Resistance: Precarious Futures and Mystical Belonging among UndocuAsian Students,” Siyue Lena Wang, University of California, Los Angeles

“Latin American Experiences in the NYC Migrant Crisis,” Edwin Grimsley, Felicia Arriaga, Masooma Amin, Daisy Flores and Nishanthini Mahendran, Baruch College, CUNY

“Managing Risk: Legal Intermediaries and Racialization of Immigration Enforcement,” Fadilat Olasupo, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

“Marginal Sovereignty: A Case for Tribal Nations as Borderlands,” Jesús Ayala-Candia, University of California, San Diego

“The Lived Experience of New Americans in Brookings, South Dakota: A Transcendental Phenomenology,” Doriane E. Paso, North Dakota State University

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