We are pleased to announce this year’s Book Forum sessions at the ASA’s 2026 Annual Meeting. These sessions will feature engaging conversations between authors and panelists, highlighting recent work that is shaping sociological research and dialogue. Join the conversation to explore timely ideas, hear diverse perspectives, and connect with colleagues around books moving the discipline forward.
Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists
by Philip N. Cohen, University of Maryland-College Park
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Rashawn Ray, University of Maryland-College Park
- Moderator: David S. Meyer, University of California-Irvine
- Panelists: Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore College; Jessica Calarco, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, Brown University
Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net
by Jessica Calarco, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno
- Moderator: Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno
- Panelists: Allison Daminger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Daniel Hirschman, Cornell University; Dawn M. Dow, University of Maryland-College Park; Jaclyn S. Wong, Langer Research Associates
Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services
by Kelley Fong, University of California-Irvine
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Frank Edwards, Rutgers University-Newark
- Moderator: Frank Edwards, Rutgers University-Newark
- Panelists: Forrest Stuart, Stanford University; Dorothy E. Roberts, University of Pennsylvania; Monica C. Bell, Yale University; Leslie S. Paik, Arizona State University-Tempe
Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution
by Amin Ghaziani, University of California, Santa Barbara
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Seth Abrutyn, University of British Columbia
- Moderator: David Grazian, University of Pennsylvania
- Panelists: Ashley E. Mears, University of Amsterdam; Abigail C. Saguy, University of California-Los Angeles; Jonathan R. Wynn, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Laurel Westbrook, University of California, Santa Barbara
Marriage Material: How an Enduring Institution Is Changing Same-Sex Relationships
by Abigail Ocobock, University of Notre Dame
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Brian Powell, Indiana University-Bloomington
- Moderator: Emily Kazyak, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Panelists: Melanie Heath, McMaster University; Kathleen E. Hull, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Michael J. Rosenfeld, Stanford University
Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Healthcare Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare
by Tiffany Joseph, Northeastern University
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Helen B. Marrow, Tufts University;
- Moderator: Deborah Carr, Boston University
- Panelists: David A. Cook-Martín, University of North Carolina; Robert Courtney Smith, Baruch College, CUNY; Anahi Viladrich, CUNY-Queens College; Ruth Enid Zambrana, University of Maryland-College Park
Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating
by Apryl Williams, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde, Utah State University
- Moderator: Gabe H. Miller, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Panelists: Elizabeth Bruch, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Jenny L. Davis, Vanderbilt University; Vanessa Gonlin, University of Georgia
Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
by Brooke Harrington, Dartmouth College
Session Participants:
- Moderator: Shay O’Brien, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Panelists: Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies; Bruno Cousin, Sciences Po, France
Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States
by Stephanie L. Canizales, University of California-Berkeley
Session Participants:
- Session Organizers: Ariana Jeanette Valle, University of California-Davis; Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, University of California-Berkeley
- Moderator: Carolina Valdivia, University of California-Irvine;
- Panelists: Elizabeth M. Aranda, University of South Florida; Joanna Dreby, University at Albany, SUNY; Angela S. García, University of Chicago
The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World
by Allison Pugh, Johns Hopkins University
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Amy L. Best, George Mason University
- Moderator: Guillermina Altomonte, New York University
- Panelists: Ekédi Mpondo-Dika, University of California-Berkeley; Benjamin Shestakofsky, Cornell University; Mitchell L. Stevens, Stanford University
The Ordinal Society
by Marion Fourcade, University of California-Berkeley; Kieran Healy, Duke University
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Nina Bandelj, University of California-Irvine
- Moderator: Barbara Kiviat, Columbia University;
- Panelists: Sarah Brayne, Stanford University; Davon Norris, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Georg Rillinger, MIT Sloan School of Management
Who Pays for Diversity? Why Programs Fail at Racial Equity and What to Do about It
by Oneya Fennell Okuwobi, University of Cincinnati
Session Participants:
- Session Organizer: Erynn Masi de Casanova, University of Cincinnati
- Moderator: Erynn Masi de Casanova, University of Cincinnati
- Panelists: Melissa Victoria Abad, Stanford University; Frank Dobbin, Harvard University; Adia M. Harvey Wingfield, Washington University in St. Louis