State of the Sociological Union
Friday, August 8
5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
This plenary will feature sociologists from a variety of different organizations and positions—nonprofits, teaching track, liberal arts college, and working in and outside of academia—to consider the broad state of the discipline. What are the biggest challenges and issues facing sociologists today? Where do we find unity and where is there dissent? What does the future hold for our field?
(Presider) David Takeuchi University of Washington; (Panelist) Lindsay Owens, Groundwork Collaborative; (Panelist) Alondra Nelson, Institute for Advanced Study; (Panelist) Dan Laurison, Swarthmore College; (Panelist) Catherine Moran, University of New Hampshire
35 Years of Black Feminist Thought: A Conversation with Patricia Hill Collins
Saturday, August 9
12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
In 1990, Patricia Hill Collins published the first edition of her groundbreaking book Black Feminist Thought. In the 35 years since the book’s initial publication, Collins’ call to sociologists to rethink the epistemological assumptions that ground our work has reshaped sociology of work, family, gender, race, and media. This plenary session, styled as a conversation between Collins and ASA President Adia Harvey Wingfield, will discuss how the book’s arguments apply today, insights that became clearer in retrospect, and future implications for sociology and sociologists.
(Presider) Adia Harvey Wingfield, Washington University in St. Louis; (Panelist) Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland
What Comes After the New Economy?
Monday, August 11
12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Sociologists refer to the new economy to describe the post-manufacturing service economy, wherein privatization, austerity, and free market ideologies rose to prominence. In the new economy, technological advancements and knowledge-based work take primacy, but declining public sector investment and the rise of precarious work mean that economic inequality has also become more pronounced. This dynamic is in flux, however, as surveys show rising support for unionization and growing attention to the consequences of a widening economic chasm. In this plenary, panelists discuss what will follow the new economy. Focusing on the interplay between sociology and public policy, panelists will consider how the new economy has laid the foundation for what will succeed it, and how sociological research has implications for what comes next.
(Presider) David Pedulla, Harvard University; (Panelist) Darrick Hamilton, New School; (Panelist) Jess Calarco, University of Wisconsin; (Panelist)Beth Pearson, Senate Office of Elizabeth Warren
