ASA News

• Introducing Cecilia Menjívar, 2022 ASA President
• Foster and Thomas Appointed Editors of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
• Announcing 2021 Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund Award Winners
• 2021 ASA Program Committee Presents Virtual Event Honoring the Legacies of James E. Blackwell and James S. Jackson
• 2022 Annual Meeting: Call for Submissions
• ASA Financial Update
• Thank You to ASA’s Generous Supporters

Introducing Cecilia Menjívar, 2022 ASA President

Don’t let Cecilia Menjívar’s kindness and unassuming demeanor fool you. She is a giant. Her empirically rich and theoretically inspired work has—on more than one occasion—transformed the research agenda in multiple subfields. Unafraid to explore the underbelly of migration bureaucracies as they shape migrants’ lives, for decades her studies have challenged established theories and simultaneously informed individual asylum cases and federal policies in the U.S.

Menjívar, who is the Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair and professor of sociology at University of California-Los Angeles, is a leading scholar of international migration and Central American studies. She is a paradigm innovator whose work urges us to examine how the state and legal categories promote exclusions, marginalization, violence, and inequalities. Recognized with John S. Guggenheim and Andrew Carnegie fellowships, Menjívar is also the recipient of numerous ASA book, article, and career awards (from the Latina/o and International Migration sections) for her astute scholarship, public sociology, and mentorship.

Career Trajectory

Born and raised in El Salvador, Central America, Menjívar came to the U.S. to study for her BA and her first MA at the University of Southern California, followed by a PhD in sociology at the University of California- Davis. Her dissertation became the path-breaking book, Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (University of California Press, 2000), based on ethnographic field work that she conducted with Salvadorans in San Francisco. In the book—recognized as one of the most influential in the sociology of family and also in anthropology—she challenged the dominant romantic and functionalist view of social networks in migration, and instead showed how a hostile context of reception causes social networks to fray and fragment under precarious conditions. Subsequent studies in sociology, history, anthropology, and more now build on her reformulation of immigrant social networks.

After holding prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, Menjívar began working at Arizona State University (ASU) in 1996, where she was recognized as an outstanding doctoral mentor and scholar, and a cherished colleague. Former ASU colleague Vera Lopez recalls that, even as a recently tenured professor, Menjívar “was a prolific scholar who still found time to mentor early career scholars. She was a role model.”

In 2015, Menjívar became a Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, and in 2018 she moved to UCLA’s sociology department. It is no surprise that colleagues there now speak glowingly about her. In only a few years, Menjívar has become “a treasured member” of the department. “She is thoughtful, conscientious, and effective in whatever she undertakes and does so with grace, congeniality, and wisdom,” says Gail Kligman. Roger Waldinger describes her as “a dedicated, inspiring teacher, an outstanding departmental and university citizen, and a caring, concerned friend.”

A Transformative International Scholar

Menjívar is widely recognized as a leader transforming multiple subfields in sociology, including international migration, Latina/o Sociology, and gender and violence. With a commitment to the understudied region of Central America and Central Americans, she has innovated sociological theory from the margins. As Mary Waters, with whom she worked on the National Academies of Science report on immigrant integration, says, “Cecilia Menjívar’s groundbreaking work on the lived realities of legal status has set the agenda for scholars in international migration … Her brilliant and empathetic studies of how the law affects everyday people and reverberates throughout society is sociology at its very best—theoretically rich, empirically rooted, and policy relevant.” Waldinger adds that she is “a scholar of extraordinary range, whose research has not only enriched the literature of my own field—international migration—but has had foundational impacts on the study of violence, gender, and the family.”

After the dissertation research, Menjívar extended field work on immigration through various projects in different U.S. sites, including Arizona; Kansas; Washington, DC; and Los Angeles. The 1990s mark the intensification of the U.S. deportation and detention regime, and Menjívar became the preeminent scholar redirecting the study of international migration away from assimilation frames (how migrants acculturate and integrate) and transnationalism (how migrants maintain social ties with their communities of origin) toward one emphasizing the social forces and processes of state exclusion.

Her 2006 American Journal of Sociology article on “liminal legality” begins a dialogue with the subfield of law and society and develops the important argument that, rather than immigrants appearing in binaries as documented and undocumented, today’s complex nation-state bureaucracies impose a myriad of intermediate, gray zone legal statuses. These produce periods of extended liminality for many immigrants. Her 2012 American Journal of Sociology article co-authored with Leisy Abrego analyzes how U.S. law constructs and imposes “legal violence” on undocumented immigrant lives in work, family, and education. These interventions have been especially useful as scholars grapple with the detrimental fallout of legal categories and policies under the Trump administration.

Menjívar developed the theme of violence in ethnographic research she conducted in Guatemala for her book, Enduring Violence: Ladina Women’s Lives in Guatemala (University of California Press, 2011). A scholarly tour de force, Enduring Violence won three book awards and offers a radical and nuanced reconceptualization of violence against women. She critiques the limitations of looking at violence by focusing on physical events, individual motivations, and interpersonal violence, and instead argues for a broader approach that recognizes the mutually constitutive interconnections between state violence, structural violence, and invisible injuries made possible through everyday gendered expectations of behavior.

Rogelio Saenz observes that the power of Menjívar’s work comes from “always looking under what seems obvious.” Various co-authors who have collaborated with Menjívar on an impressive number of path-breaking articles feel inspired by working with her. Leah Schmalzbauer considers herself “a better sociologist and a better person having had the privilege of collaborating with her,” and Nestor Rodriguez adds that “she always brings new insights and perspectives to elevate the analysis in our work.” These qualities make Menjívar’s scholarship required reading for graduate students’ qualifying exams, as noted by Irene Bloemraad.

Although Menjívar’s primary research has focused on Central Americans and Central America, she has also conducted research around the world, including in Armenia, Russia, and Mozambique with her husband, the UCLA social demographer Victor Agadjanian, and always with their son, Alexander Agadjanian, in tow (he’s now a young adult, pursuing a PhD in political science at UC Berkeley). The impact of Menjívar’s research is global. She is internationally renowned, invited often to deliver keynote and distinguished lectures throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Europe.

A Transformative Mentor

As Irene Bloemraad notes, what makes Menjívar’s work all the more impressive is that she “combines academic innovation and professional leadership with incredibly engaged mentorship and teaching.” Even when they were fellow graduate students, Mridula Udayagiri recalls that Menjívar was “always pragmatic, mentoring me through momentous decisions about advisors, teaching, and my dissertation project.”

As a professor, Menjívar has published with many graduate students, helping pave the way for a new generation of migration scholars in sociology. Professor Sang Hea Kil, the first graduate student Menjívar mentored, recalls, “Cecilia was a loving, kind, wise and brilliant mentor … I recently was promoted to full professor at San Jose State University, and I owe a lot of my success to her loyalty, her unwavering belief in me, and to her amazing persistence that I push forward in academia and never give up.”

Andrea Gomez Cervantes, her recent graduate student from the University of Kansas and now assistant professor at Wake Forest University, states, “Professor Menjívar taught me how to do academia as a first-generation immigrant Latina. She showed me how to create rigorous research that can lead to social change. She read every word of my dissertation, coached me through writing, publishing, wins, and rejections. Today she continues to guide me to navigate the tenure track.” Indeed, everyone we reached out to for this profile underscored Menjívar’s genuine warmth and humility.

Transforming Migrant Lives

As a public sociologist, Menjívar does what so many of us hope to do when we enter the discipline: effectuate change. With research based on close connections with study participants, her scholarship is in high demand by legal practitioners inside courtrooms and in legal documents to push the needle toward justice in migration policies. Doing this kind of legal advocacy work is extremely time-consuming, adding obligations to professorial teaching, research, and service. Yet Menjívar is driven by social urgency and moral obligation to do this important pro bono work.

Menjívar has written dozens of affidavits for women’s individual asylum cases, provided research support for legislative campaigns, and written declarations for class actions, crafting persuasive arguments based on her own research and that of other scholars in the field. These activities, moreover, further inform her own research agenda. For example, when testifying in court one time, a judge asked her why women fled conditions of violence in Central America when their countries had many laws in the books to protect them. She has since researched this question thoroughly and written a series of publications on institutional neglect and justice system failures to protect women in Central America. This peer-reviewed work now serves as exhibits that accompany expert witness affidavits and declarations.

Since the latest Central American exodus began in 2014, Menjívar has worked with many attorneys from nonprofits and law clinics who represent detained women and children, playing key roles in these cases. She has provided pro bono expert testimony and used her sociological knowledge to educate legal practitioners throughout the country, in the process helping inform legal and advocacy strategies to address the crisis. Bringing sociological research to inform this work is paramount for Menjívar who often has legal teams read sociological work as they prepare their cases.

In 2017, as the fight for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of immigrants was on the line when the Trump administration moved to end it, Menjívar also lent her research expertise to the organized movement of TPS recipients. Evelyn Hernandez, a TPS-holder and movement leader with the National TPS Alliance and the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles attests to her role: “Dr. Menjívar conducted an important national study on TPS in 2016 in which she raised the profile of our contributions in terms of labor and wages … She is present at every press conference, media interview, and event where we have invited her. She is essential to our fight for permanent residency.”

Menjívar has also contributed her expertise in class action cases seeking to reverse harmful policies for immigrants. She worked closely with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, providing research-based affidavits for the cases filed in federal court to reverse Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s rule to eliminate gender and gang violence as grounds for asylum. Blaine Bookey, CGRS legal director, explains how meaningful Menjívar’s role has been: “Menjivar’s work as an expert witness in asylum cases has saved lives. But not only has her scholarship made a difference in individual cases, it has helped reshape harmful narratives about asylum seekers. Equipped with a more nuanced understanding of the underlying conditions that force individuals to flee their homes, advocates are better able to tell their stories and push for more durable solutions.”

Morgan Russell, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, also attests to her commitment in action. “Again and again, Professor Menjívar has made time in her busy schedule—often on short notice—to channel her deep knowledge and research into expert declarations to support urgent lawsuits brought by the ACLU and our partners to challenge some of the most egregious Trump-era immigration policies. From the nationwide expansion of summary deportation procedures to the use of COVID-19 as a pretext to bar asylum to children and families … Her insights into the social conditions that drive vulnerable people to uproot and seek safety in the United States have been especially valuable in our efforts to educate courts about the very real dangers facing those impacted by these restrictionist policies.”

2022 Meeting Theme: Bureaucracies of Displacement

The 117th ASA Annual Meeting will be held August 5–9, 2022, in Los Angeles, and Menjívar has selected “Bureaucracies of Displacement” as the theme. She invites us to examine how state bureaucracies produce exclusions, expulsions, and marginalizations in all realms of social life, and also to discuss how state inactions (such as divestment, neglect, and deregulation) undermine democracy and equality. At the end of the day, as Karida Brown offers, “Cecilia Menjívar is more than a scholar, more than a mentor, and more than a colleague. What her sociology brings to the world and to our discipline embodies the ideal of what a 21st-century public intellectual looks like. Cecilia’s research and praxis are urgent, accessible, and uncompromisingly human. And she does it for us all, including the least of us.” In a moment of social challenge, multiple crises and transformation, let’s embrace her vision and follow her example.

By Leisy Abrego, University of California, Los Angeles and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, University of Southern California

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Foster and Thomas Appointed Editors of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

I’m honored to introduce B. Brian Foster and James Thomas as the new editors of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Although the journal is relatively new (the inaugural volume appeared in 2015), the founding editors, David Brunsma and David Embrick, have established a world-class journal for publishing cutting-edge research and theory on race and racism. As the second set of editors, Foster and Thomas are poised to build on this success with their expansive vision for the journal. Both scholars have produced cutting-edge research focused on some of the most pressing questions in sociological race scholarship, established themselves as leaders in the field, and are deeply committed to rigorous empiricism and methodological pluralism. They also recognize the crucial importance of public sociology and racial justice.

It is an exciting and daunting moment to be a sociologist of race and ethnicity. On the one hand, the summer of 2020 saw some of the largest protests for racial justice in U.S. history. Years of organizing, spearheaded by the Black Lives Matter movement, have raised public consciousness of the profound and enduring problems of racialized police violence and racial inequality. Research showing the depth, continuity, and intractability of structural racism has been central to racial justice organizing that moved anti-racism from the margins to mainstream discussions. On the other hand, these social movement successes face a political backlash that is, at its root, organized around racial grievance and the majority’s fear of status loss. The political backlash challenges basic empirical and historical facts about America’s racial history—the very type of race scholarship that the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity highlights.

Given their records, I am confident that Foster and Thomas are editors who can navigate the contemporary moment. Their vision for the journal recognizes the challenges race scholarship faces and responds with a plan to meet these challenges. They remain committed to the sociological fundamentals of theoretical and methodological pluralism while planning to increase the journal’s reach through savvy public engagement. Social media has altered the context of reception for research with new metrics measuring visibility and engagement. They plan to increase the journal’s social media footprint by highlighting new research and revisiting older works when they become relevant for a news cycle or trending topic.

Foster and Thomas also plan to introduce a new section with conversations between scholars. Recognizing that knowledge construction is always a collaborative process, they will curate discussions of cutting-edge research and works in progress. This section will also highlight up-and-coming scholars, drawing attention to their research and access to a significant scholarly outlet. Some of the most exciting insights and ideas I’ve been exposed to throughout my career happen in conversations with brilliant colleagues, and I’m excited to see the journal formalize and share these intellectual exchanges.

Now that I’ve discussed the stakes of race scholarship and their vision for the journal, I’ll highlight their scholarly contributions below.

B. Brian Foster

Foster is an assistant professor in the sociology department at the University of Virginia, prior to which he served as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. Foster earned his PhD in 2017 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His work is at the forefront of the scholarly movement focused on Black placemaking, particularly in the South. His 2020 book, I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life (The University of North Carolina Press) is a brilliantly written interrogation that serves as a corrective to the overwhelming ethnographic focus on the northern cities. Based upon research from Clarksdale Mississippi, Foster’s book continues the long tradition of Black public sociology pioneered by scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells and the early sociological tradition of community studies.

Like Du Bois’s Atlanta school studies, I Don’t Like the Blues takes Black life in the rural South seriously as a sociological lens for studying race relations broadly. Sociology has too often seen Black lives as particular and not “general” or “universal.” Foster’s work gives lie to this notion, showing that the voices of Black Mississippians have as much, if not more, to teach the discipline about development, labor, hope, despair, and what we can learn (and unlearn) from listening to the Blues.

Foster has also applied his expertise to public conversations on race by publishing in national and international outlets, including Bitter Southerner, Mississippi Today, Oxford Magazine, CNN, and The Washington Post. Foster’s commitment to public work and community building goes beyond publishing. At the University of Mississippi, he served as director of the Mississippi Hill County Oral History Collective, an oral history project collecting the stories of Marshall County.

James Thomas

Thomas is an associate professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Mississippi. He received his PhD in 2011 from the University of Missouri. Thomas’s work follows two lines of inquiry central to the contemporary study of race and ethnicity: racial formations and expressions of racism. Thomas has explored these topics through four books and multiple peer-reviewed publications in outlets such as Social Problems, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

Thomas’s exploration of these topics has been broad, examining, for instance, the medicalization of racism in scholarly and popular venues, the precursors to modern conceptions of race in medieval European discourse on dissections between Jews and Christians, and the contemporary use of diversity as a paradoxical racial project that reinforces—rather than alleviates—racial inequality in organizations. Thomas has also contributed to the revival of Du Boisian thought in the discipline, showing, for instance, how Du Bois’s time in Germany during a period of rising anti-Semitism influenced his subsequent work on the color line.

Thomas is also active in public debates about the role of race in American life. He has published commentaries in local and national outlets, including the Jackson Free Press, The Oxford Eagle, The Clarion-Ledger, Inside Higher Ed, and The Washington Post. Finally, Thomas’s commitment to diversity goes well beyond studying the concept’s material consequences. His collaborative work with the local NAACP has been recognized locally and nationally, including a Chairman’s Award in recognition of the University of Mississippi chapter’s work on inequality.

By Victor Ray, The University of Iowa

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Announcing 2021 Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund Award Winners

ASA congratulates the grant recipients of the 2021 Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund, which provides small grants for projects that advance the scholarship of teaching and learning within the discipline of sociology. Recipients include:

• Kylie Parrotta, California Polytechnic State University; Andrea Hunt, University of North Alabama; Bedelia Richards, University of Richmond; Marni Brown, Georgia Gwinnett College; Lisette Garcia, The Pennsylvania State University; Brianna Turgeon, Jacksonville State University; Baker Rogers, Georgia Southern University; Robert Brown, North Carolina Central University; and David Brunsma, Virginia Tech, for Striving Towards Anti-Racist Teaching in the South (STARTS)
• Marie-Claude Jipguep-Akhtar, Delores Jones-Brown, Bahiyyah Muhammad, Howard University; and Denise Bissler, Nazneen Khan, Delores Jones-Brown, Randolph-Macon College for HBCU-PWI Collaborative Learning as Racial Justice Pedagogy

Click here to learn more about the award winners. To learn about the award, application process, and deadline, click here.

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2021 ASA Program Committee Presents Virtual Event Honoring the Legacies of James E. Blackwell and James S. Jackson

Join the 2021 ASA Program Committee at a virtual event—A Virtual Toast and Tribute to the Lives and Legacies of James E. Blackwell and James S. Jackson—honoring the lives and legacies of Blackwell and Jackson, scholars who made monumental contributions to social science research, public policy, and the training and mentoring of hundreds of academics, especially people of color. The program, which will be held Friday, November 12, 7:00–9:00 p.m. Eastern will include two panels, one devoted to the legacy of each scholar. Attendees will also have an opportunity to share their memories and offer other reflections and personal tributes.

Event organizers include Aldon Morris, ASA Immediate Past President; Leon Forrest, professor of sociology and African American Studies, Northwestern University; Mignon Moore, professor of sociology, Barnard College and Columbia University; and Tod Hamilton, associate professor of sociology, Princeton University.

Click here to attend the session.

Send questions, recommendations, or comments to Hamilton at [email protected]. You can also send your messages to Morris ([email protected]) and Moore ([email protected]).

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2022 Annual Meeting: Call for Submissions

The online portal for the 2022 Annual Meeting will open Monday, November 8, 2021. The deadline to submit proposals is February 9, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. In addition to paper/extended abstract submissions, proposals will be accepted for courses, workshops, preconferences, the Sociology in Practice Settings Symposium, and the Teaching and Learning Symposium. Calls for submissions will be posted by October 29. Registration for the 2022 Annual Meeting will open in January.

ASA is carefully monitoring recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others regarding the COVID-19 situation as we begin planning to host the Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. At present, we are planning for an in-person event, but we may revise plans for the health and well-being of our community. Annual Meeting attendees will be required to follow all health and safety protocols mandated at the time of the meeting.

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ASA Financial Update

In mid-August 2021, the ASA Council reviewed the completed 2020 audited financials and a summary was presented at the member business meeting. I am happy to report that we finished 2020 with a balanced budget for the fourth year in a row. In light of the pandemic, our operating revenue was well over a million dollars below budget, but that was offset with significant savings on the expense side and other mitigation strategies. We have healthy reserves, and the auditor praised us on the very high percentage of every dollar we spend on member service as opposed to operations. The auditors’ opinion states that the financial statements were presented fairly and in conformity with the requirements of generally accepted accounting principles. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to be challenging financially for the association, but we are keeping a close eye on the bottom line and we are working diligently to manage the impact. The 2020 audit can be accessed from ASA’s website.

Nancy López, ASA Secretary-Treasurer

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Thank You to ASA’s Generous Supporters

ASA acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, whose financial contributions (January 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021) to the association have strengthened our discipline.

Some of these donations provide unrestricted support to ASA, and others are used specifically for the American Sociological Fund, the Carla B. Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund, or the Community Action Research Initiative. In addition, this list includes both five-year leadership pledge donations and one-time donations for the Campaign for Inclusion. This campaign supports our longstanding Minority Fellowship Program and our Annual Meeting Travel Fund.

If you are interested in making a contribution to support ASA in its mission to serve sociologists in their work, advance sociology as a science and profession, and promote the contributions and use of sociology to society, please click here.

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