Details about preconference sessions at the 2026 ASA Annual Meeting are listed below. All attendees must register for the Annual Meeting to participate in preconference sessions.
In addition to preconference sessions, we also offer professional development courses. View available courses.
Adapting to Survive or Back to Core Values? Teaching Sociology in Times of Political Upheaval, Technological Change, and Public Distrust
When: Friday, August 7 at 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: Student $15/Faculty $30
Session Organizers:
- Michel Estefan, University of California-San Diego
- Brandon James Moore, California State University-San Marcos
- Claudia E. Lavenant, University of California-Irvine
About this session: Amid ongoing political pressures, shifting student expectations, and the day-to-day demands of teaching in a time of backlash, this Preconference Workshop offers a rare chance to step back from the immediacy of the classroom and consider the broader horizon of sociological education. It is an invitation to pause, take stock, and think strategically about the future we want to build–one in which our pedagogy not only withstands the challenges of the moment but helps shape the classrooms and communities we aspire to build. Through roundtables, presentations, and networking conversations, participants will explore how technological change, political polarization, threats to academic freedom, and questions of disciplinary legitimacy are reshaping our work. Together, we will share concrete strategies for designing supportive learning environments, sustaining our teaching labor, and demonstrating sociology’s public value. Our goal is for attendees to leave with renewed clarity, practical tools, and a sense of collective purpose—ready to move from retrenchment toward possibility in the teaching of sociology.
AI and the Future of Extremism
When: Friday, Augsut 7 at 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: $5
Session Organizers:
- Adam Burston, The Ohio State University
- Laura Dugan, The Ohio State University
About this session: Throughout the 21st century, extremist political, movement, and terrorist actors have harnessed emergent technologies to great effect. This includes ushering in the “post-truth” era by creating chatbots and hijacking social media algorithms; innovatively using social media to disseminate supremacist ideology and coordinate mass violence; and employing surveillance technology to illegally microtarget voters, altering their behavior.
These developments have repeatedly surprised the social scientific community. Thus, recent sociological research on technologically enhanced extremism is focused on explanation and damage control rather than prediction and prevention. This preconference will disrupt the status quo by encouraging sociologists to think proactively about emergent technologies and how they will directly and indirectly shape extremism. Specifically, how will extremist political and movement actors harness artificial intelligence (AI) as part of an innovative tactical repertoire, and how will the societal impact of AI create conditions that give rise to extremism?
This preconference is for sociologists who want to anticipate emerging technological trends and collaboratively build a research agenda. Our panels will bring academic and policy experts into dialogue. Academic experts hail from the disciplines of sociology, criminology, journalism, communication, and economics, while policy experts represent Data & Society and the NYU Stern Center for Business & Human Rights. Our first panel will feature an interdisciplinary group of experts on extremism and AI. Our second panel will address how the social and environmental fallout of AI could plausibly give rise to extremism in the near future. Our third panel will feature academic and industry experts on disseminating research about AI and developing AI policy. We will conclude with an “expert elicitation” (fancy brainstorming) activity in which preconference attendees will collaboratively build a proactive research agenda for sociologists studying the relationship between AI and extremism.
Antisemitism and the Struggle for an Equitable Society: Disrupting the Old-New Exclusions of a Changing Status Quo
When: Friday, August 7 at 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: $5
Session Organizers:
- Chad Alan Goldberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Arnold Dashefsky, University of Connecticut
About this Session: This preconference builds on the success of three previous ASA preconferences on the sociology of antisemitism in 2019, 2023, and 2024, as well as a Special Session on the sociology of antisemitism at the 2025 ASA meeting, and it seeks to advance their work at a crucial time. Antisemitism has been on the rise in the US since the mid-2010s, as reflected in data on antisemitic behavior, antisemitic attitudes, and Jewish perceptions of antisemitism. In just the past year, the home of Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor was firebombed (April 2025); Kanye West released an overtly Nazi glorifying song titled “Heil Hitler” (May 2025), amplifying antisemitic rhetoric to millions; Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered in Washington, DC (May 2025); and a peaceful demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas was firebombed, resulting in serious injuries and one fatality (May 2025). Anti-Jewish violence has erupted outside the US as well, most notably in the murder of 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor, at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, Australia (December 2025). In line with the ASA’s 2026 meeting theme, “Disrupting the Status Quo: Putting Sociology to Work for a More Equitable Society,” our proposed preconference presumes that a more equitable world is one with less antisemitism, and it focuses on evidence-based solutions to a serious and worsening social problem.
In this preconference, we will gather colleagues to advance the theoretical and empirical aspects of the sociology of antisemitism. The preconference will feature three sessions devoted to paper presentations. Each session will be followed by Q&A and discussion.
Participants will gain a better sociological understanding of antisemitism and possible solutions to this social problem, which expands upon the theme of the annual meeting: “Disrupting the Status Quo: Putting Sociology to Work for a More Equitable Society.”
When: Friday, August 7 at 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Session Organizer: Margaret Gough Courtney, American Sociological Association
Registration Fee:
- Department Affiliates: Early Bird $140/Regular $200
- Non-Department Affiliates: Early Bird $172/Regular $230
About this Session: Higher education has undergone numerous changes in recent years, requiring sociology departments to adapt and innovate. In this context, some departments are not just surviving, they’re thriving. How do they do it? What can we learn from their success, and how might we adapt their strategies to diverse institutional contexts? How can we move beyond the prevailing sense of crisis to foster community, hope, and strong, vibrant departments? This preconference will explore these pressing questions, offering department leaders practical skills and evidence-informed strategies to cultivate flourishing programs. Designed for chairs and directors of undergraduate and graduate studies, this preconference provides an opportunity to connect with peers, share insights, engage in skill-building, and develop strategies needed to thrive.
Topics include:
- Strategies used by departments that are thriving across varied institutional settings
- Strategic planning approaches that foster growth and inclusion
- Building systems to minimize conflict and enhance engagement
- Challenges and opportunities specific to department chairs and directors of graduate studies
- And more!
Join us for a day of engagement, practical takeaways, and peer support as we reimagine what it means to lead thriving departments in today’s academic climate. View the full agenda.
Group Processes Conference
When: Friday, August 7 at 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Registration Fee: $40
Session Organizers:
- Bianca Manago, Vanderbilt University;
- Jenny L. Davis, Vanderbilt University
About this Session: This will be the 38th Group Processes conference, which is held annually, just prior to ASA. The Group Processes conference provides an opportunity for sociologists and other social scientists to share research about small group processes. This preconference brings together theoretically innovative and empirically rigorous scholarship that examines micro and meso-level processes. Specifically, research presented at this conference often demonstrates how micro- and meso-level processes shape—and can be leveraged to transform—structural-level systems of stratification.
Given the 2026 ASA Annual Meeting theme, Disrupting the Status Quo: Putting Sociology to Work for a More Equitable Society, the Group Processes preconference is a natural fit. Specifically, group processes research often systematically articulates and empirically tests how the small group offers a promising site for interventions that disrupt inequalities to advance a more equitable society. For example, previous research has demonstrated that changes in small group and meso-level norms decrease inequality.
This preconference will foreground research that uses theoretical insights to develop pragmatic interventions to inequality. By centering group processes as a bridge between theory and action, the preconference advances sociology’s capacity to move beyond explanation toward intervention. In doing so, it directly responds to the urgency of the current moment and pursues sustained, equitable social change.
Pursuing Impact Scholarship: Approaches in Disrupting Authoritarianism, Disinformation, and Male Supremacism
When: Friday, August 7 at 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: $17
Session Organizer: Alex DiBranco, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism
About this Session: In 2019, a group of emerging scholars in sociology and political science founded the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism to address a lack of scholarly attention to misogynist ideology and to connect research to action for gender justice. With three IRMS cofounders in attendance, the preconference will highlight the organization’s development as a model for engaged public scholarship and explore how we work with organizers, media, and communities. Discussion of our 2026 white paper will offer an example of solutions-focused research, which challenges dominant trends and offers new solutions for work around preventing violence and supremacism.
The theme of this year’s ASA resonates deeply with IRMS’s approach, centering historically marginalized voices in academia, advancing solutions-focused research, and investing in collaboration with and resources for social justice organizations, research nonprofits, engaged community members, and concerned media. As sociology thrives as a field that embraces interdisciplinary collaborations and collaboration outside of academia, the preconference brings together sociologists in conversation with scholars from other disciplines and researchers outside of academia. Presenters will pair their expertise with personal experiences navigating the desire to pursue impact research, especially for historically marginalized researchers such as women, trans people, and people of color who are challenging dominant academic paradigms.
IRMS was founded as a disruption of the status quo, and our goal for the preconference is to offer IRMS an example for sociologists seeking ways to rethink their approach to scholarship through both practical and strategic insights. Each session is organized with short presentations followed by extensive time for discussion, to encourage collaborative insights and idea generation from participants interested in their own connection to public sociology. We will complete the event with an hour put aside to discuss in the preconference community how to take the lessons learned into their own future practice.
Sociology of Food Pre-Conference
When: Friday, August 7 at 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: Students $5/Faculty $30
Session Organizer: Danielle Duran, Northeastern University
About this Session: Interest in the sociology of food has grown exponentially over the last 20 years, as sociologists have increasingly examined topics related to food justice, food insecurity, food policy, food production, food consumption, and diet-related health outcomes. Although this body of work is expanding, the variation in topical foci of food-focused research often segments this work into multiple sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA), which can limit opportunities for researchers to connect across sections. The purpose of this pre-conference is to present current sociological work being done across a broad range of food-related topics to bring food sociologists together and introduce those who are interested in studying food to the different dimensions of food studies. This pre-conference will provide opportunities for junior scholars to connect with leading experts in the field to examine topics related to food justice, food access, food policy, culture, and politics. Because food is intricately woven through all facets of society, from politics to plates, this pre-conference aligns with the broader conference theme, “Disrupting the Status Quo: Putting Sociology to Work for a More Equitable Society”, by helping sociologists learn how to use food as a tool for creating actionable, sustainable, and equitable change.
The Sociology of Race and Space
When: Friday, August 7 at 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: $5
Session Organizers:
- Nicole Elise Trujillo-Pagan, Wayne State University
- Teresa Irene Gonzales, Loyola University Chicago
- Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, University at Albany, SUNY
- Angela Marie Simms, Barnard College-Columbia University
About this Session: This preconference bridges a gap in the American Sociological Association between the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities (SREM) and the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS). It recognizes how sociologists have struggled to understand the relationship between space and society. It draws on a long legacy but challenges a dominant paradigm that associates Black and Brown neighborhoods with harm and danger. Panelists move beyond but these themes to consider how non-white spaces foster joy, care, and mutual aid.
This preconference also considers the production of space and place and extends its analytical frame to borders, boundaries, and the distinction between urban, suburban, and peripheral areas to interrogate how and why the relation between people and production results in patterned disparities to access public goods and amenities. It also interrogates segregation and the related concepts of white and Black space to predict the impact of the new Latina/o/X category for the 2030 US Census.