Roughly 500 retired and emeritus teachers, researchers, and applied social science scholars contribute a modest ASA membership fee to maintain their professional identity as sociologists as part of the ASA Retired Sociologists Community (RSC). For many of us, being a sociologist, even if not working full-time, is akin to what Everett Hughes called a master status—an identity that dominates in most social situations.
For this Community, actively seeing and moving through the world with what Kai Erikson eloquently called “the sociologist’s eye” remains central. The RSC sustains identity and provides a community that encourages a sense of belonging through our activities. Any one of these variables—identity, community, or belonging—without the other two seems problematic.
With beginnings in the ASA Retired Sociologists Network, which sunset in 2025, our energies as a current Community center around a portfolio of online activities: virtual topical discussions, a bimonthly book group, a monthly listserv (sharing retirees’ recent publications, accomplishments, resources, e.g.), advisory board participation opportunities, and a biannual newsletter with thematic essays by and for members. In person, we support a panel session and the “Life in Sociology” lecture at the ASA Annual Meeting.
Our commitment to these activities keeps our sociological imaginations and skills applied to current issues and challenges. For example, the bimonthly book group participants alternate an academic sociology book with a memoir or novel. Recent selections included: Autocracy, Inc., by Anne Applebaum; Abundance by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, and Stolen Pride by Arlie Hochschild, who attended the discussion. Examples of the novels discussed are James by Percival Everett and Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. If you would like more information about these online discussions or are interested in joining the conversation, please directly email Jan Milner at [email protected].
The online open discussions have been hosted by John Kennedy, David Snow, and Dan Chambliss over the past two years and meet in a series once a month (usually the third Thursday on Zoom). Topics to which participants have turned their sociological lens include “The Epstein Class,” “Would you encourage students to major in sociology today?” and “What is the status of sociology as a science versus an advocacy group?”
The most recent RSC newsletter, POSTSCRIPTS, ably edited by Linda Breytspraak, shared essays reflecting on what retired sociologists do with newfound time. Excerpts from two delightful examples illustrate how one’s sociological imagination carries on.
Walking
One major task of retirement is to settle its open-endedness with purposeful uses of time. Approaching my date of retirement, I foresaw relief from workday obligations on my time, time that I soon intended to use taking better care of myself. As it happened, I retired straight into the isolation and social distancing of the early Covid pandemic. And so, I adopted a habit of daily walking as a benefit for my health and as a way to escape the house.
Each day I selected a new-to-me set of streets and walked them systematically. The area could be residential (urban, suburban) or commercial. While touring my city like this, I readily fell into sociological interpretations of what I saw. I saw social class and distinction, materially, right there in brick and mortar, in the greenery growing and overgrowing, and in the objects that might occupy a property. The people I passed on the street—I wondered who they were and what are their roles in life. Walking close to the trucks of lawn care or construction workers and feeling sheepish, I have made it a point to greet them, as much to say: I see you making a living while I have the luxury of strolling at leisure.
-David Ekerdt
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Jubilado!
I am a Mexican sociologist living in Mexico and a member of the American Sociological Association since 1998. I retired 10 years ago; however, I have continued to supervise doctoral dissertations at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, where I remain affiliated as a professor despite my retirement.
One important point I would like to share with English-speaking readers concerns a linguistic and cultural difference. In Spanish, we do not say “I am retired”; we say I am jubilado. The word jubilado comes from jubileo—jubilee—and conveys a sense of celebration, enjoyment, and living with pleasure. By contrast, retired suggests being “out” or withdrawn, whereas jubilado evokes a period of fulfillment.
Because I am living this jubilee, the most significant change in my life after retirement is that I no longer have to put up with foolish bosses, endure dreadful meetings, or comply with institutional targets. This freedom has allowed me to devote myself to what I enjoy most: reading for pleasure, cooking, hiking in the forest near the city where I live, gardening, learning to play tennis, and continuing to publish articles, book chapters, and essays—now without pressure.
-Víctor Zúñiga
Additional essays on birdwatching, volunteerism using our skills, working at a food pantry, starting the original 2008 ASA Retirement Network, continued leadership in the fight against racism, ongoing publication, and consulting also confirm what a rich chapter of life this can be for those of us fortunate to be here. We will welcome you all to the RSC when the time comes!
Connect with the Retired Sociologists Community online.