Selection Criteria
This award honors those ASA scholars who have shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline. The body of lifetime work may include theoretical and/or methodological contributions. The award selection committee is particularly interested in ASA members whose work substantially reorients the field in general or in a particular subfield.
Nomination Procedures
Nominations must include a letter of nomination, a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae and five to seven letters of recommendation from a variety of individuals able to speak to the qualifications of the nominee. The person making the nomination should obtain this material and forward it to the committee, with the nominee’s curriculum vitae, as a package.
In addition to the nomination materials described above, complete and submit the required nomination form.
Nominations can be considered for five years, but they are not automatically renewed. Each year, nominators will be asked if they wish to renew their nominations for consideration. If a renewal is requested, nominators will be invited to submit updated information or additional materials and are required to respond again to the ethics question.
Self-nominations are encouraged. All awardees must be current ASA members at the time of the award ceremony at the Annual Meeting. One need not be a member to be nominated for an award. All nominators must be current members. Please also be aware of ASA’s ethics disclosure and award revocation policies.
Submit nominations for the 2025 award to [email protected] by January 1, 2025.
2025 Selection Committee Members
The selection committee is composed of nine members, each serving a staggered three-year term. Members are appointed from among the Association membership by the Council based on the recommendation of the Committee on Committees.
Jyoti Puri, Chair
Jenifer L. Bratter
Sasha R. Drummond-Lewis
Steven Epstein
Julian Go
Odis D. Johnson
Verna M. Keith
James Michael Thomas
Natasha Warikoo
Past Recipients
2024 Michael Burawoy
2023 Viviana A. Zelizer
2022 Mary Romero
2021 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
2020 Aldon Morris
2019 Harvey L. Molotch
2018 Elijah Anderson
2017 Patricia Hill Collins
2016 Glen H. Elder, Jr.
2015 John W. Meyer
2014 William Julius Wilson
2013 Joe R. Feagin
2012 William Gamson
2011 Harrison C. White
2010 Alejandro Portes
2009 Sheldon Stryker
2008 Barbara Reskin
2007 Joseph Berger
2006 Herbert Gans
2005 Charles Tilly
2005 Charles Willie
2004 Arthur Stinchcombe
2003 Immanuel Wallerstein
2002 Gerhard E. Lenski
2001 William Foote Whyte
2000 Seymour Martin Lipset
1999 Dorothy E. Smith
1998 Howard S. Becker
1997 William Hamilton Sewell
1996 Peter M. Blau
1995 Leo Goodman
1994 Lewis A. Coser
1993 Joan R. Acker
1992 Daniel Bell
1991 Mirra Komarovsky
1990 Robin M. Williams, Jr.
1989 Jessie Bernard
1988 George C. Homans
1987 Wilbert E. Moore
1986 Edward A. Shils
1985 Reinhard Bendix
1984 Morris Janowitz
1983 Herbert Blumer
1982 Kingsley Davis
1981 Everett C. Hughes
1980 Robert K. Merton
