Washington, DC – The American Sociological Association (ASA) is pleased to announce the winners of the ASA Awards for 2006. The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Saturday, August 12th, at 4:30 p.m. The Awards Ceremony will immediately precede the formal address of ASA President Cynthia Fuchs-Epstein, Graduate Center, City University of New York. The awards are the highest honor that the Association confers. Awardees are selected by committees directly appointed by the ASA Council. The ASA award winners for 2006 are:

Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award: Herbert Gans (Columbia University)

This annual award honors a scholar who has shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline. The body of lifetime work may include theoretical and/or methodological contributions, particularly work that substantially reorients the field in general or a particular subfield.

Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology:Arthur Shostak (Drexel University)

This annual award honors outstanding contributions to sociological practice.  The award may recognize work that has facilitated or served as a model for the work of others, work that has significantly advanced the utility of one or more specialty areas in sociology and, by so doing, has elevated the professional status or public image of the field as whole, or work that has been honored or widely recognized outside the discipline for its significant impacts, particularly in advancing human welfare.

Distinguished Book Award: Edward Telles  (University of California-Los Angeles) for his book, Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil (Princeton University Press, 2004)

This annual award is given for a single book or monograph published in the three preceding calendar years. The winner of this award gives the Sorokin Lecture at a meeting of a regional or state sociological association.

Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award: Kathleen McKinney (Illinois State University)

This award is given annually to honor outstanding contributions to the undergraduate and/or graduate teaching and learning of sociology, which improve the quality of teaching. The award may recognize either a career contribution or a specific product.

The DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award honors the intellectual traditions and contributions of W.E.B. DuBois, Charles S. Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier. The award is given either to a sociologist for a lifetime of research, teaching, and service to the community or to an academic institution for its work in assisting the development of scholarly efforts in this tradition It details the nominee's career or achievement and the way in which it is consistent with the traditions of these outstanding African-American scholars and educators.

Jessie Bernard Award: Margaret Andersen (University of Delaware)

The Jessie Bernard Award is given annually in recognition of scholarly work that has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society. The contribution may be in empirical research, theory, or methodology. It may be for an exceptional single work, several pieces of work, or significant cumulative work done throughout a professional career.

Award for Public Understanding of Sociology: Diane Vaughan (Columbia University)

This award is given annually to a person or persons who have made exemplary contributions to advance the public understanding of sociology, sociological research, and scholarship among the general public. The award may recognize a contribution in the preceding year or for a longer career of such contributions.

Dissertation Award: Amy Hanser (University of British Columbia) for her dissertation, Counter Strategies: service Work and the Production of Distinction in Urban China (University of California-Berkeley, PhD, 2005) and Jason Beckfield  (University of Chicago) for his dissertation The Consequences of Regional Political and Economic Integration for Inequality and the Welfare State in Western Europe (Indiana University, PhD, 2005)

The Dissertation Award honors the best PhD dissertation for a calendar year from among those submitted by advisors and mentors in the discipline. The Dissertation Award for 2006 is awarded for the best dissertation defended during calendar year 2005.

Any questions about the awards can be directed to Daniel Spar, Governance, Sections & Archives. He can be reached at (202) 383-9005, ext. 334 or at spar@asanet.org.

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