Calls for Papers: Publications
The Journal of Lesbian Studies is seeking papers for two upcoming issues on the Sapphic state and on Lesbian Memory Work. The issue “The Sapphic State: Contributions to State Theory, Political Thought, and Governance” will explore through a sapphic perspective how far-right political movements globally exploit gender and sexuality for their repressive goals. Read the full call for papers here. The issue “Memory Work, Oral History and Radical Public History in Global Lesbian Communities: Capturing Experiences, Activism and Memories” will explore the role of public history and memory work in intersectional global lesbian communities. Read the full call for papers here. The abstract deadline for both issues is March 20, 2025.
The Journal of Political Power is accepting submissions for the special issue, “Allusions, Illusions, and Delusions of Political Power.” This issue will center critical research in lesser recognized or understood forms of power operations, the changing political landscape in which these power relations develop, and new challenges to resistance to political power. Editors seek studies that advance theoretical understandings of allusions to power, how myriad forms of authority shape offices and understandings of power, illusions of power, the ways in which power is performed but decoupled from implementation, and delusions of power, an understanding of social contexts where beliefs about the nature of political power shield realities of domination and control. Abstracts of approximately 500 words due April 25, 2025. Read the full call for papers here.
Socio-Economic Review seeks papers for an upcoming special issue on the theme “Offshore Finance: The Socio-Economics of a Global System.” Editors invite perspectives from across the social sciences and humanities on the use of offshore finance by individuals. Papers must engage explicitly with the journal’s core themes and build bridges across disciplinary boundaries. Papers must be empirical, but all methods—qualitative, quantitative or mixed—are welcome. The submission deadline is May 15, 2025. Read the full call for papers here.
The British Journal of Sociology seeks papers for an upcoming special issue on the theme “The Precarity of Work and Life: How Insecurity Equalizes and Stratifies People’s Experiences.” Editors welcome articles that address all aspects of socio-economic insecurity that go beyond orthodox economic framings and that can lead to empirical advancements, as well as theoretical developments, in how we understand insecurity vis-à-vis inequality. The submission deadline is September 2, 2025. Read the full call for papers here.
Calls for Papers: Conferences
The Eighteenth Global Studies Conference will be held on the theme “Minds and Machines: Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Ethics, and Order in Global Society” on July 2-4, 2025, in Spain and online. The Global Studies Research Network is devoted to mapping and interpreting past and emerging trends and patterns in globalization. It seeks papers on the following themes: networks of economy and trade; the power of institutions; vectors of society and culture; and ecological foundations. The deadline is April 2, 2025. Find out more on the website.
The Thirty-Second International Conference on Learning will be held on the theme “Human Learning and Machine Learning—Challenges and Opportunities for Artificial Intelligence in Education” on July 8-10, 2025, in Spain and online. The Learner Research Network is brought together around a common concern for learning in all its sites, formal and informal, and at all levels. It seeks papers on the following themes: pedagogy and curriculum; assessment and evaluation; educational organization and leadership; early childhood learning; learning in higher education; adult, community, and professional learning; learner diversity and identities; technologies in learning; literacies learning; and science, mathematics and technology learning. The proposal deadline is April 8, 2025. Find out more on the website.
The Fifteenth International Conference on Food Studies will be held on the theme “Fed Up: Learning from the Past, Imagining New Futures” on October 8-10, 2025, in South Africa and online. The Food Studies Research Network is brought together around a common interest to explore new possibilities for sustainable food production and human nutrition, and associated impacts of food systems on culture. It seeks papers on the following themes: food production and sustainability; food, nutrition, and health; and food politics, policies, and cultures. The proposal deadline is July 8, 2025. Find out more on the website.
Events
The ASA Children and Youth Section will offer free media training on March 28, 2025, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Media strategist and executive-level coach Emmy Hernandez and Director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies Ernesto Hernandez will provide practical strategies to help you overcome fear, confidently share your expertise, and establish yourself as a trusted authority. This Zoom workshop is open to all ASA members. Register here.
The 2025 Identity Theory Conference will take place at Purdue University, October 10-11, 2025. The conference will celebrate all research using identity theory and will include 15-minute paper presentations and flash talks on projects that are not yet full papers and/or only research ideas. There are no registration fees for the conference and some travel funding is available for graduate students and others who could not otherwise attend the conference. Read more about the conference here.
Accomplishments
Carolyn Choi, Princeton University; Angie Y. Chung, University at Albany-The State University of New York; Minjeong Kim, San Diego State University; Sojung Lim, Utah State University; and Jerry Z. Park, Baylor University, have received funding from the Korean American Foundation in Los Angeles to conduct a national survey on “Commemorating the 125th Anniversary of Korean America: Current State, Future Directions.”
In the News
Deborah Carr, Boston University, was quoted in the February 27, 2025, article “Centenarians Share Their Longevity Formula: ‘Staying Busy Gives You Purpose’” in the Washington Post.
Penny Edgell, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, was quoted in the February 26, 2025, article “What Does It Mean To Be ‘Spiritual,’ If Not Religious, In Minnesota?” in the Minnesota Star Tribune and in the February 26, 2025, article “Christianity’s Decline Gets More Complicated, New Pew Religion Study Finds” in USA Today, and the March 2, 2025, article “The US Christian Population Has Declined For Years. A New Survey Shows That Drop Leveling Off” from the Associated Press.
Jessie Ford, Columbia University, was quoted in the February 20, 2025, article “Nearly One in 10 U.S. Adults Identifies as L.G.B.T.Q., Survey Finds” in the New York Times.
Heba Gowayed, The City University of New York-Hunter College, was quoted in the February 27, 2025, article “CUNY Removes Palestinian Studies Job Listing on Hochul’s Orders” in the New York Times.
Brooke Harrington, Dartmouth College, authored the February 25, 2025, article “Trump Is Like F.D.R.–Only in Reverse” in the New York Times.
Kieran Healy, Duke University, was quoted in the February 28, 2025, article “The Terrifying and Possibly Counterproductive School Shooter Drill” in the Boston Globe.
Kenneth H. Kolb, Furman University, authored the February 27, 2025, opinion piece “Commentary: Social Science Research in SC Is Under Attack” in the Post and Courier.
Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, Ohio State University, was quoted in the March 4, 2025, article “Hundreds Demonstrate at Ohio State Against Controversial Higher Ed Bill, DEI Office Cuts” in the Columbus Dispatch.
Dorothy E. Roberts, University of Pennsylvania, was quoted in the February 20, 2025, “RFK Jr.: Black Kids on ADHD Drugs Should Be ‘Re-Parented’” in Word In Black.
Kristin Surak, London School of Economics, was quoted in the February 26, 2025, article “How Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ Plan Echoes the Golden Visas Programs in Europe” in the New York Times.
Karyn Vilbig, New York University, authored the February 27, 2025, article “More Americans of All Political Stripes Support Government Benefits For Low-Income People—And Black Lives Matter Could Be A Big Reason Why” in the Conversation.
Ronald Weitzer, George Washington University, was quoted in the March 4, 2025, article “At Thailand’s Real White Lotus Hotel, Where the Ultrarich Get Coddled” in New York Magazine.
New Books
Chris A. Barcelos, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Youth Organizing for Reproductive Justice: A Guide for Liberation (University of California Press 2025).
Monisha Das Gupta, University of Hawaii-Manoa, All of Us or None: Migrant Organizing in an Era of Deportation and Dispossession (Duke University Press 2024).
Diana Graizbord, University of Georgia, Indications of Democracy: The Politics and Promise of Evaluation Expertise in Mexico (Stanford University Press 2025).
Atiya Husain, Williams College, No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge, and Terrorism (Duke University Press 2025).
Jennifer Huynh, University of Notre Dame, Suburban Refugees: Class and Resistance in Little Saigon (University of California Press 2025).
Mary Romero, Arizona State University, Introducing Intersectionality, 2nd Edition (Polity Press 2025).
Rogelio Sáenz, University of Texas at San Antonio; Maria Cristina Morales, University of Texas at El Paso; and Coda Rayo-Garza, Every Texan, Latina/os in the United States: Diversity and Change, 2nd Edition (Polity 2025).
Jessi Streib, Duke University, and Betsy Leondar-Wright, Staffing the Mission Project/Fund the People, Is It Racist? Is It Sexist?: Why Red and Blue White People Disagree, and How to Decide in the Gray Areas (Stanford University Press 2025).
Nicholas H. Wolfinger, University of Utah, Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations (Academica Press 2025).
1937-2025
Barbara Altman, the founding mother of disability studies, passed away on Saturday, February 1, 2025. She was instrumental in creating the Society for Disability Studies, serving as its president from 1990 to 1991, and in establishing the ASA Section on Disability and Society, serving as its first president. Altman received the Section’s Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Disability award in 2014, and in 2006, she received the ASA Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology’s William Foote Whyte Career Award.
Altman earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Maryland. She worked for many years with the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she served as Special Assistant on Disability Statistics to the Office of the Director. She also worked at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the United States that is the most complete source of data on the cost and use of health care and health insurance coverage. Altman also played a key role in the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, an international group working under the auspices of the United Nations to develop culturally compatible measures of disability for international use. Along with Sharon Barnartt of Gallaudet University, Altman was a founding co-editor of the Emerald Insights book series Research in Social Science and Disability. She served as editor or co-editor of the series for many of the volumes from 1999 through 2017.
Altman’s research interests focused primarily on disability definition and measurement, financing and utilization of healthcare services by people with disabilities, and disability among minority groups, particularly Native Americans. She was the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including the chartbook Disability and Health in the United States, 2001-2005 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2008). In addition to her scholarship, Altman was engaged in disability advocacy in Maryland, lobbying the Maryland General Assembly and supporting and advising The Arc Montgomery County—a Maryland organization committed to connecting people of all ages and abilities with their communities to build inclusive and fulfilling lives.
Altman is survived by three sons and two grandchildren. She was generous with her time and expertise with colleagues and students, serving as a mentor, friend, colleague, and role model to many in our community. She will be missed.
Sharon N. Barnartt, Gallaudet University; Richard Scotch, University of Texas at Dallas
1936–2024
Lawrence James ‘Larry’ Saha blended pioneering research, tireless mentorship and remarkable leadership to shape the study and practice of sociology and education around the world. Saha passed away on August 19, 2024.
Saha was born on July 9, 1936, in Rosenberg, TX, and began his higher education journey at Notre Dame University in Indiana, where he completed his bachelor of arts degree. Saha continued his education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he submitted his master’s thesis on “The Imputation of Mental Illness to Various Types of Deviants” in 1966, before undertaking his doctoral thesis under a supervisory board that included Leonard Broom and Frank Lancaster Jones.
Saha immersed himself in Austin’s vibrant intellectual community, honing his focus on social psychology, education, and social movements–areas that would become the cornerstones of his scholarly contributions. It was also during this period that Saha became an accomplished teacher. He completed his doctoral dissertation, “Task Orientation and Professional Performance in an Australian University,” in 1970.
That same year, Saha met Leonard Broom’s colleague, George Zubrzycki, a visiting fellow at Austin and the recently appointed foundational professor of the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts at The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. These meetings convinced Zubrzycki that Saha was the ideal person to develop the sociology teaching program at ANU.
While Saha’s teaching abilities were exceptional, his research pursuits at ANU soon gained equal recognition. His focus soon expanded beyond Australian sociology to include work of global significance. Among his landmark contributions was Education and National Development: A Comparative Perspective (Pergamon 1983), co-authored with Swedish scholar Ingemar Fägerlind, which positioned education as a critical force in shaping national trajectories. Another important contribution was the volume The Untested Accusation: Principals, Research Knowledge, and Policy Making in Schools (Rowman and Littlefield 2005), co-authored with Bruce Biddle, University of Missouri, which draws on interviews with 120 U.S. school principals to challenge the view that principals rarely engaged with educational research to inform how to run their schools. Saha’s groundbreaking project, the Youth Electoral Study (YES), conducted in collaboration with the Australian Electoral Commission, provided critical insights into Australian youth’s voting behaviors, political attitudes, and civic participation.
As editor-in-chief of Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal for more than 20 years, Saha oversaw the journal’s evolution into a leading platform for interdisciplinary research. He was also unstinting in this role when helping authors turn submissions into published articles. His editorial leadership also extended to field-defining encyclopedic works such as the International Encyclopedia of Sociology of Education (Emerald 1997).
As a long-standing member of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Sociology of Education (RC-04), Saha played an instrumental role in fostering international collaborations. His leadership roles included two terms as the committee’s Vice President for Oceania. Saha also made significant contributions to the Australia and New Zealand Comparative Education Society (now the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society).
As dean of the Sociology Department and later as dean of the faculty of arts at ANU, Saha championed initiatives that enhanced research capacity, curriculum innovation, and student engagement. His commitment to mentorship was particularly impactful. He supervised numerous doctoral students, many from the Global South, who have since become prominent scholars. Retirement did not assuage his passion for teaching, supervision, and research.
Saha’s legacy endures in the countless lives he touched and the scholarship he advanced. His life exemplified the highest ideals of academia: a dedication to knowledge, an openness to collaboration, and a deep commitment to human connection. His memory will continue to inspire and guide all who had the privilege of knowing him.
Alastair Greig and Joanna Sikora, Australian National University; Alden Klovdahl, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston