Session Allocation
The number of sessions allocated to a Section at the Annual Meeting is determined by its membership count as of September 1. Sections meeting on the final day of the Annual Meeting (Tuesday) are granted one additional session. Additionally, Sections are allotted an extra session for a business meeting.
| Number of Members in a Section | Number of Sessions Earned |
| Less than 300 | 1 |
| 300-399 | 2 |
| 400-599 | 3 |
| 600-799 | 4 |
| 800-999 | 5 |
| 1000+ | 6 |
2026 Section Days
The 2026 Annual Meeting will be held August 7-11, 2026 in New York. Section programming starts on Saturday, August 8.
Day 1 – Saturday, August 8
Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity
Asia and Asian America
Comparative-Historical Sociology
Decision-Making, Social Networks, and Society
Disability in Society
Drugs and Society
Environmental Sociology
Family
Marxist Sociology
Organizations, Occupations, and Work
Peace, War, and Social Conflict
Science, Knowledge, and Technology
Sociological Practice and Public Sociology
Sociology of Religion
Sociology of Sexualities
Day 2 – Sunday, August 9
Biology and Society
Collective Behavior and Social Movements
Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology
International Migration
Labor and Labor Movements
Medical Sociology
Race, Gender, and Class
Sociology of Culture
Sociology of Development
Sociology of Education
Sociology of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations
Sociology of the Body and Embodiment
Day 3 – Monday, August 10
Aging and the Life Course
Children and Youth
Consumers and Consumption
Crime, Law, and Deviance
Global and Transnational Sociology
Inequality, Poverty and Mobility
Methodology
Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Social Psychology
Sociology of Emotions
Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Theory
Day 4 – Tuesday, August 11
Animals and Society
Community and Urban Sociology
Economic Sociology
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
History of Sociology and Social Thought
Latina/o Sociology
Mathematical Sociology
Political Economy of the World System
Political Sociology
Sociology of Human Rights
Sociology of Law
Sociology of Mental Health
Sociology of Population
Sociology of Sex and Gender
Notice About 2026 Session Allocation Changes
Background
The Council approved a recommendation by the Annual Meeting Redesign Committee to reallocate regular session slots to the sections. The reallocation will be enacted for the 2026 Annual Meeting.
A Slot Reallocation Working Group was convened and tasked with determining a method to reallocate the regular session slots to the sections. Working group members were invited to serve based on experience with section leadership and planning, regular session planning, ASA Sections Committee experience and the Annual Meeting Redesign Committee. The working group began with a mapping exercise to determine frequency of content overlap between regular session topics and section content areas. Other data studied were submission rates from recent years for sections and regular session topics, and annual feedback from section reports. The resulting decisions were to:
- Give every section that only had one programming slot, an automatic second slot. This is meant to recognize and support smaller membership sections.
- Reserve an inventory of slots (30) for sections to propose co-sponsored sessions with one or more other sections. This is meant to foster collaboration between sections and not necessitate that one of the sections use one of their allotted slots. Right now, if a section wants to co-sponsor a session, one of the sections must use one of their slots.
- Divided the remaining slots amongst sections based on the frequency of regular session topics that were mapped to that section. Sections will receive between 1 and 5 additional slots based on this mapping.
The 2026 allocation consists of both dynamic and constant components. The dynamic portion is that Sections will continue to earn slots based on their membership allowing for the increase or decrease of slots. However, the slots that sections receive as part of this reallocation will remain constant. For example, if your section earns 3 slots based on your membership, that number may still increase or decrease based on membership but the 2 additional slots that you receive as part of the reallocation is constant.
Other Considerations
- It is a requirement approved by Council that sections offer at least one open submission session with their newly acquired slots to perpetuate the open call nature of the regular sessions that will no longer be offered after 2025.
- A pool of session slots will be made available to sections looking to co-sponsor sessions.
- This new formula will result in the program looking a little different. With additional slots, section programming will now bleed into multiple days. Because there are only four programming slots per day, sections with four or more total programming slots will be scheduled on two or more consecutive days. The “Section Day” rotation will continue and the section day will be considered the day upon which the section’s business meeting is scheduled.
- It is the recommendation of the working group that this formula be reviewed every three years.
Please do not hesitate to let [email protected] know if you have any questions about the 2026 change.