Welcome to the 119th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association! I could not be more delighted to be here in Montréal, a global city that reflects a rich tradition of immigration (including my own immigrant parents who met here in Montréal)!
Conferences can be many things. I remember keenly the excitement of attending my first American Sociological Association meetings in 1990 in Washington, D.C. With little money for travel, I was staying in a grad school colleague’s friend’s empty apartment with no electricity, sleeping on the floor, sitting in the windows to catch the breeze at night. Yet my days were filled with wonder, realizing the true breadth of the discipline and the many opportunities the conference gave me to explore new ways of thinking. And in the three decades since, conferences have given me chances to attend sessions that renew my excitement for the field, while also spending time with old and new friends exploring cities and enjoying great meals. My greatest wish is for everyone here to experience the exhilaration of stimulating sessions, scintillating conversations, delicious food, and beautiful sights outside of the conference space.
The theme for these meetings, Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy, is meant to focus attention on how sociologists use sociology to help build a better world, through our research, our engagement with communities, our teaching, and our public sociology. And that better world is necessary.
The struggles of the last year have created ruptures and rifts among many communities, including among sociologists. We have witnessed the loss of academic freedom and freedom of speech across many settings, including colleges and universities in which sociological insights have been removed from the curriculum, and protests have been violently shut down. Despite the ruptures, I know one thing: sociologists continue to share a deep commitment to making a difference with their work. I hope that our time at these meetings can be a time of healing – recognizing our common goals for creating peaceful communities where every person is respected and has opportunities for growth and healthy, joyful lives.
My year as president has highlighted The Value of Sociology, and ASA staff have worked hard and long to provide an array of supports aimed at communicating our value to wider audiences in our current context when sociology is under attack. ASA is working to empower sociologists to advocate for and defend the discipline, through resources for writing op-eds, tracking legislation, communicating with legislators, and. We have also collected stories (and TikToks and Instagram posts from students!) about how sociology makes a difference, and have been disseminating them, and using them in our own efforts to defend the discipline. The Annual Meeting includes a plenary on Academic Freedom in a Fearsome Age (Friday, August 9, 5:00-6:30 p.m.), which includes experts on attacks on academic freedom and how to best respond to these attacks, a Thematic Session featuring scholars who have experienced challenges to academic freedom, and a PEN America workshop on “Academic Freedom and Inclusion: Tools to Uphold Both.” I hope that these sessions and resources bring us together in defense of our discipline.
I also look forward to seeing many of you at the plenaries on Transnational Feminist Solidarities (Saturday, August 10, 12:00-1:30 p.m.), and Abolition Feminism (Monday, August 12, 12:00-1:30 p.m.), as well as the wide array of other sessions, including Thematic Sessions, Special Sessions, Book Forums, Regular Sessions, Section Sessions, Regional Spotlight Sessions, Workshops, Symposiums, as well as the Welcome Reception and Honorary Reception to celebrate the award winners, and many other receptions!
I hope that you all take this moment in Montréal to breathe deeply, reconnect with friends, and reflect on the value of sociology.
Acknowledgements
There is truly no way to thank everyone who has played a part in creating this meeting. I am very grateful that so many people have taken the time to engage with my vision. First and foremost, I want to highlight the remarkable work of Michelle Randall, Director of Meeting Services, and Heather Young, Meeting Services Associate. Michelle and Heather make every single element of our meetings possible, and I could not possibly thank them enough. I am also grateful for the work of all the ASA staff, who are truly among the most professional, hard-working, and excellent people with whom I’ve ever worked. I also thank Meenal Patel, an independent artist, who created beautiful artwork to celebrate the meeting. Heather Washington and Nancy Kidd, who served as Interim Executive Director and Executive Director as I was planning the meeting, also deserve my special thanks.
I am also deeply grateful to members of the Program Committee. The Program Committee includes Kimberly Huyser (University of British Columbia), Angela Jones (SUNY-Farmingdale), Alfonso R. Latoni (DHHS/National Institutes of Health/NIEHS), Monica McDermott (Arizona State University), C. Shawn McGuffey, (Boston College), Tasleem J. Padamsee (The Ohio State University), Amrita Pande (University of Cape Town), Jennifer A. Reich (University of Colorado, Denver), Myron T. Strong (Community College of Baltimore County), and Adia M. Harvey Wingfield (Washington University-St. Louis). This committee is diverse in many ways, including institutional affiliation, in the hopes that we could build a program that calls in all our members. This small group of people helped develop and read many wonderful submissions to decide on thematic sessions, special sessions, and book forums, consider topics for regular sessions and identify organizers for them, while also working with me to help my vision come to life. I am so grateful to their commitment to me, and to American Sociological Association. Adia Wingfield requires a special thank you; in the 25 years I’ve known her, she has always been a superb colleague and friend, and despite her own workload as President-Elect, always gave generously of her time and advice, while also making me laugh when I most needed it.
Our local arrangements committee co-chaired by Paulina Garcia-Del Moral (University of Guelph) and Maria Cecilia Hwang (McGill University) and including Barry Eidlin (McGill University), Matthew Lange (McGill University), Marie Laperrière (University of Manitoba), Emily J. Laxer (York University), Lisa Trefzger Clarke (Trent University), Dawn Waubmemee Lavell Harvard (Trent University), Beatrice Zani (National Center for Scientific Research) put together some very exciting sessions focused on the Canadian context, including sessions on nationalisms, gender-based violence, the civil sphere, the labor movement, Indigenous women’s activism, political polarization, and migration pathways. They also designed walking tours on LGBTQ+ history, the Other Old Montréal, Côte-des-Neiges, and Parc Extension. Helping root these meetings in Canada gives the annual meeting a richness that I deeply appreciate.
Finally, I want to thank the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for their support of my presidential work, and friends, family, and colleagues across the world who have supported me over the last two years. As a person with chronic health issues and disabilities, I have relied heavily on my colleagues and friends – and good university supports – to hold me up, and they have always come through. My mentors, including Dave Throgmorton from college and Alex Hicks from graduate school, gave me the sociological imagination, skills, and freedom to follow my heart. I have similarly been inspired by my late father (Raghunath), mother (Therese), sisters (Sima, Maya, and Tara), husband (David), children (Amina & Rabi), and larger family, who all work for social justice in the spaces they inhabit. My students and former students always remind me that sociologists are everywhere, and our insights make the world a better place. Their brilliant, creative work keeps me going and has made my life – and the world – better. Thank you all.
