The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everyday social life in ways that were hard to ignore. Many stopped going out. Bars and restaurants closed. Offices emptied as some types of work moved online. We kept our distance, wore masks, and avoided social gatherings. Seeing friends became less frequent. Casual interactions with neighbors also disappeared. Much of what we took for granted as part of daily lif[...]

Heading into 2024, public trust in U.S. higher education was declining, and state budgets were under strain. Then the U.S. election occurred, and the new presidential administration threatened to push higher education into free fall. In a speech in 2021, then-senator JD Vance declared that “professors are the enemy,” and the administration’s actions in the first months of 2025 proceeded apac[...]

One film device I always appreciate is when a character in a science fiction movie explains a complex concept in overly simple terms. One of the best satirical examples appears in an episode of the TV show Futurama, in which one character lays out an elaborate plan: “If we can reroute engine power through the primary weapons and configure them to Melllvar’s frequency, that should over[...]

Rory M. McVeigh (University of Notre Dame) has been elected the 119th President of the American Sociological Association (ASA), and Dina G. Okamoto (Indiana University-Bloomington) was elected ASA Vice President. They will begin their terms as President-Elect and Vice President-Elect on September 1, 2026. In September 2027, they will succeed Alford Young, Jr. (University of Michigan) a[...]

Council members of the American Sociological Association (ASA) traveled to Capitol Hill in early March to meet with members of Congress and senior congressional staff. The visit underscored the strong alignment between federal legislative priorities and the types of social questions sociologists research every day, while reinforcing the importance of sustained engagement between the discipline and[...]

Efforts to improve equality of school funding are like a carnival shell game. Focusing too closely on one shell can distract from a sleight of hand with another. While state school funding reforms work to reduce inequality of school resources by income, sociologists know that inequality of school funding is not the result of income disparities alone. Any effort to understand—or reform—school f[...]

The Department of Programs and Research (PAR) at the American Sociological Association has long provided disciplinary data, including data about ASA’s membership, the Job Bank, degrees awarded, and graduate enrollments. This information helps members and departments make decisions about programming, strategic planning, and careers. We also maintain an archive of past research on departments, gra[...]

In late summer 2025, I was returning to the U.S. on a United Airlines flight from Hong Kong. As I often do on long trans-Pacific flights, I spent about two hours working on unfinished papers and the rest of the time relaxing—catching up on recently released movies and doing some leisure reading. As I scrolled through the movie list, I came across Wolfs (2024), starring Brad Pitt and Geo[...]

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 domi[...]

Anima Adjepong (they/them), department head and associate professor of women’s gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Cincinnati, brings decades of intellectual and community engagement with transnational sexualities—experience that they creatively meld with critical sociologies to add heft to the editorial team of Sex & Sexualities. Adjepong’s research merges the[...]

It is with profound pleasure that I introduce Joya Misra as a new member of the American Sociological Review (ASR) editorial team. Misra joins Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Laurel Smith-Doerr, and David Cort in leading the American Sociological Association’s flagship journal. She brings extensive editorial and leadership experience, as well as broad scholarly expertise and commitment to[...]

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has appointed Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology at Syracuse University, as the next editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB). I have had the privilege of knowing Montez as a close colleague, collaborator, and friend for more than a decade, and I can say without hesitation that there is no one better suited to lead <[...]

RF (Rebecca) Plante joins Sex & Sexualities as one of two new co-editors. She is excited to be part of the journal’s collaborative editorial structure and ready to bring her experience as a book and journal editor to bear on this new position.  As a Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Ithaca College (2021–26), Plante’s research focuses on sociological aspects of sexual s[...]