Calls for Papers: Publications
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society invites both theoretical and practical papers for a special issue on the theme “Crisis.” Where and how do we locate crisis (or crises)? What enables crisis conditions, and how do feminists and feminism survive them? Read the full call for papers, including topic ideas, here. The deadline has been extended to April 1, 2026.
Social Science and Medicine invites abstracts for a special issue on the theme “Polarization and Health Policy in a Global Context” that aims to collect a broad array of geographic and disciplinary perspectives on the topic of polarization and health policy. Editors are particularly interested in research that expands one’s understanding of how social and political polarization impacts the ability of states and societies to act in ways that protect the public’s health, and which generates new knowledge about strategies that could be used to address such effects of polarization. To read the full call for papers, including topic ideas, visit the website. The deadline for abstracts is April 30, 2026.
Political Nostalgias Past and Present: North America is an edited volume that seeks to bring together diverse perspectives to explore nostalgia as a political resource—strategically deployed, culturally mediated, emotionally experienced, and institutionally embedded. Editors are particularly interested in how political nostalgias operate across time and space: how they are constructed, whose pasts are centered or marginalized, how they circulate through media and cultural forms, and how they influence democratic and authoritarian projects alike. Editors invite manuscripts that engage with nostalgia as theory, method, discourse, affect, or practice. Read the full call for chapters, including a list of possible themes and topics, here. The proposal deadline is May 31, 2026.
Calls for Papers: Conferences
The Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) invites submissions for its 28th conference to be held in Banff (Canada), October 9–10, 2026, on the theme of “Ethnic Dynamics and Immigration in a World in Flux.” Proposals should examine the implications of this current period of major global transformation on race and ethnic relations and international immigration and offer theories to help understand and address the moment. CESA invites theoretical and empirically based contributions, individual papers and/or fully formed panels, standard papers or presentations in other formats (e.g., posters, roundtables, films) from a variety of disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. Deadline is March 15, 2026. Read more about the conference here.
The British Society for Population Studies will hold its 53rd Annual Conference at the University of Kent in Canterbury (England) on September 8–10, 2026. It invites abstracts for presentations and posters across the entire demographic and population studies spectrum that use any empirical or conceptual approach with a demographic or population studies focus. For more details about the event, including information on the many topic areas under consideration, visit the website. The deadline is April 17, 2026, by 5:00 p.m. UK time.
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management will hold its 48th Annual Fall Research Conference on November 5–7, 2026, in Boston on the theme “Fifty States, Fifty Systems: State Policy Variations and Impacts.” Organizers seek submissions for panels, posters, roundtables, single papers, and student research in the following policy areas: crime, justice, and drugs; education; employment and training programs; family and child policy; health policy; housing, community development, and urban policy; innovations in science and technology; methods and tools of analysis; national & homeland security and crisis management; natural resource, energy, and environmental policy; politics, media, and the policy process; population and migration issues; poverty and income policy; public and nonprofit management and finance; and social equity and race. Every session during the conference will be categorized into one of these primary policy areas, but submitters may select more than one policy area when submitting. Proposals are due by April 22, 2026. Read the full call for proposals here.
The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) will hold its 2026 Annual Conference on November 24–27, 2026, at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland (Australia) on the theme “Revolution and Resistance.” It invites general abstract and panel abstract submissions that engage with questions such as: What can sociology offer to understandings of resistance and revolution? How can we read resistance and revolution expansively, productively and generatively in pursuit of a better world? Organizers also invite workshop proposals from Thematic and Career Stage groups. Read the full call, including topic suggestions, on the website. The abstract deadline is April 24, 2026.
Fellowship
The Center for Childhood & Youth Studies at Salem State University (MA) welcomes applications for its Fellows program for the 2026-2027 school year. This is an unpaid virtual fellowship in which graduate students and early career scholars meet monthly to network and advance their research. Fellows are given access to university library resources and are given opportunities to publish and make professional presentations. Applications are due August 1, 2026. For more information, contact Yvonne Vissing.
Call for Proposals
The Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging—with funding from the National Institute on Aging—the invites investigators to submit proposals for pilot research that enhances understanding of the multilevel and multidimensional drivers of rural health and aging trends and disparities. Investigators may request up to $35,000. Proposals are due by April 10, 2026. Read the request for proposals here.
Call for Applications
The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison invites applications from U.S.-based scholars from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to apply for its Visiting Poverty Scholars Program. Applicants may choose to visit IRP or any one of its U.S. Collaborative of Poverty Centers partners for five days during the 2026–2027 academic year to interact with that center’s resident faculty, present a poverty-related seminar, and become acquainted with staff and resources. Visiting scholars will confer with a faculty host, who will arrange for interactions with others on campus. The application deadline is April 3, 2026. Read the call for applications here.
Calls for Nominations
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Sociology seeks nominations for the 2027 Florian Znaniecki Lecture, which was launched in 2007 and aims to highlight speakers with significant sociological contributions to the broad areas of research that Znaniecki is known for—culture, theory, methodology, and immigration/migration studies. The recipient will visit the campus, meet with faculty and students, and give the Florian Znaniecki Lecture. The recipient will receive a $5,000 honorarium and a plaque at the conclusion of their visit. Nominations are due by May 1, 2026. Read the full call for nominations here.
Summer Programs
The Social Science Research Council’s ’s Better Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Land-Use Decisions (BUILD) Research Network program invites proposals from researchers to recruit and supervise graduate students to conduct high-quality case studies during the summer of 2026 on state legislative sessions that passed bills intended to legalize or encourage housing production. Supervising researchers will receive an honorarium of $2,500. Students conducting the case studies will receive a grant of $7,500. The proposal should be no more than 2 pages and include a description of the proposed case study, the supervising approach, and short bios and CVs for all participants. The deadline for applications is March 30, 2026. Learn more and apply here.
Bowling Green State University Libraries and the Popular Culture Association (PCA) invite applications for the 2026 Summer Research Institute at Jerome Library on the BGSU campus, June 22–26, 2026. Researchers will spend a week working with the Browne Popular Culture Library and the Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives, two nationally recognized collections that support distinctive research in popular culture and music. Both repositories will be available for in-depth research during the Institute, offering access to comic books, sound recordings, fanzines, publicity materials, scripts and screenplays, archival manuscripts, magazines, historic genre fiction, and other primary sources supporting a wide range of interdisciplinary research. Faculty, independent scholars, and advanced graduate students are encouraged to apply. If your research involves popular culture, this institute is for you! Read the full call for applications here. The deadline is March 31, 2026.
The 2026 UCSIA Summer Schools on Religion, Culture & Society will take place August 23–28, 2026, in Antwerp (Belgium) and focus on the theme “From Disciples to Followers: Questioning the Digital Experience of Religions Online.” The summer school theme is designed to draw attention to the ambivalence and enthusiasm brought forth by religion going digital, both locally and globally. Recognizing the increasing importance of digital ways of experiencing and communicating about faith, religious practice and identity, this year’s theme focuses on the ways in which religious publics and religious forms of publicity are being reshaped by digital technologies, platforms and political economies. Applications are due April 20, 2026. To find out more about the program and how to apply, visit the website.
Events
A Conference on Black Queer and Trans Sexuality, Migration, and Racism—organized by the University of Windsor’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, Black Scholars Institute, and the Queer and Trans Migrant Advocacy Alliance of Windsor-Essex—will be held in a hybrid format on March 20, 2026. It will mark the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and bring together scholars, community organizers, artists, advocates, and the broader public for dialogue across academic and community spaces. Organizers hope the conference will feel collaborative, generative, and attentive to how theory, research, artistic practice, and lived expertise speak to one another. For more information about the event, click here.
The Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago will hold the 2026 Conference on Discrimination in the 21st Century: Fostering Conversations Across Fields on April 28–29, 2026. Experts from economics, sociology, law, behavioral sciences, healthcare, artificial intelligence, and more will discuss crucial themes around discrimination during presentations and open panel discussions. The keynote speaker will be William A. Darity Jr., the Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. Find out more here.
Accomplishments
Karla A. Erickson, Grinnell College, received the Rosenfield Professor of Social Studies endowed chair.
Amanda E. Fehlbaum, Youngstown State University, was selected for the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown’s 2026 Women’s Hall of Fame.
Steven J. Gold, Michigan State University, received the College of Social Science’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching, Research and Service in recognition of his research, mentorship, and service to the public and the profession.
Prema Kurien and Bandana Purkayastha received the 2026 Outstanding Tenured Faculty Research Article Award from the Association for Asian American Studies for their Sociological Inquiry article, “Why Don’t South Asians in the U.S. Count As ‘Asian’?: Global and Local Factors Shaping Anti-South Asian Racism in the United States.”
In the News
J. Gordon Arbuckle, Iowa State University, had research profiled in the February 24, 2026, articles “New Study Sheds Light on Cover Crop Adoption” in Morning AgClips and “Study: Only 23% of Iowa Farmers Use Cover Crops, Risking Water Quality” on We Are Iowa.
Robyn Autry, Wesleyan University, authored the February 25, 2026, opinion piece “Florida Wants to Cut the Sociology Out of a Sociology Textbook” on MS Now.
Glenn Bracey, Villanova University, was quoted in the February 7, 2026, article “What Do We Make of Colin Kaepernick Now?” in the Washington Post.
Dawn Carr, Florida State University, was quoted in the February 13, 2026, piece “Chapters Deleted, Sections Added: Florida’s New Sociology Textbook Is ‘Stop-Gap,’ Says Professor” from WRLN Public Media.
Kelley Fong, University of California-Irvine, authored the March 1, 2026, opinion piece “How California Reduced Foster Care Without Risking Kids” in the Sacramento Bee.
Julian Go, University of Chicago, was interviewed for the February 5, 2026, article “Sociology Expert Says ICE’s Violent Tactics in the U.S. Are a Clear Example of the ‘Imperial Boomerang'” in HuffPost.
Deborah B. Gould, University of California-Santa Cruz, participated in the February 27, 2026, conversation “A Labor Organizer’s Reckoning Sparks A Powerful Intergenerational Conversation About ACT UP & Turning Grief into Power” in Queerty.
Pierce Greenberg, Clemson University, had research profiled in the March 1, 2026, piece “WSU Study Examines Whether Wealth Influences Climate Crimes Lawsuits” from KIRO 7 News (Seattle).
Karen B. Guzzo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Carolina Population Center, authored the February 12, 2026, article “How to Raise Birth Rates Is the Wrong Question: Here’s What We Should Be Asking” in the Hill.
Evan Wilson Lauteria, University of Florida, and Aldon D. Morris, Northwestern University (retired), were quoted in the February 23, 2026, article “Faculty Union Warns of State Overreach in Newly Revised Sociology Textbook” in the Gainesville Sun.
Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh, was a guest on the March 2, 2026, episode of the Bloomberg podcast Odd Lots on the topic ” How the Speed of a Trade Got Nearly Down to the Speed of Light.”
Sanyu A. Mojola, Princeton University, was interviewed about her new book, Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol (California University Press 2025), in the February 16, 2026, article “‘A Foreclosing of Options’: Racial Health Inequality in Washington, D.C.” in the Prospect.
Dorothy E. Roberts, University of Pennsylvania, was interviewed about her new book, The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family (Atria/One Signal Publishers 2026), on the February 10, 2026, episode of NPR’s Fresh Air, titled “A Daughter Reexamines Her Own Family Story in ‘The Mixed Marriage Project’.” She was also interviewed for the February 15, 2026, segment on ABC News titled “Woman Details Personal Experience with Interracial Marriage in Memoir” and the February 19, 2026, segment on NPR’s Morning Edition, titled “In ‘Mixed Marriage Project,’ a Woman Explores Her Dad’s Study of Interracial Couples.” Her book was profiled in the February 23, 2026, article “Did Her White Father Marry Her Black Mother for Love, or for Research?” in the New York Times.
Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University, was quoted from his new book, Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans (Harvard University Press 2026), in the February 16, 2026, article “A Surprising Theory for Why Some People Become Criminals” in the Boston Globe.
Megan Thiele Strong and Grace Howard, San Jose State University, authored the February 27, 2026, article “San José State University Should Fight Ruling on Trans Athletes” in the Progressive Magazine.
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Steven Boutcher, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, authored the February 16, 2026, article “White Men File Workplace Discrimination Claims but Are Less Likely to Face Inequity Than Other Groups” in the Conversation.
Nicole Trujillo-Pagan, Wayne State University, had her new book, Detroit Never Left: Black Space, White Borders, Latino Crossings (New York University Press 2026) profiled in the February 25, 2026, piece “Wayne State Professor’s New Book Digs into Race and Space in Detroit” in Axios Detroit.
Emily Walton, Dartmouth College, had her new book, Homesick: Race and Exclusion in Rural New England (Stanford University Press 2025) covered in the February 6, 2026, article “‘Homesick’ Illuminates How Unwelcoming the Upper Valley Can Be for People of Color” in the Valley News and was interviewed for the February 18, 2026, piece “New England Yankee Reserve, Or Racial Exclusion? A Professor Takes a Look at the Upper Valley” from New Hampshire Public Radio.
Andrew Whitehead, Indiana University-Indianapolis, was quoted in the March 2, 2026, article “National Prayer Breakfast or Christian Nationalism Breakfast?” in Baptist News Global.
Christine Min Wotipka, Stanford University, was quoted in the March 4, 2026, article “Women Lead Almost Three In 10 of World’s Best Universities” in Times Higher Education.
New Books
Nina Bandelj, University of California-Irvine, Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting (Princeton University Press 2026).
Joshua A. Basseches, Tulane University, Owning the Grid: The Political Economy of Renewable Energy Policy Design (Penguin Random House 2026).
Neil Brenner, University of Chicago; Swarnabh Ghosh, Harvard University; and Nikos Katsikis, Delft University of Technology, Environments of Planetary Urbanization (JOVIS 2026).
Japonica Brown-Saracino, Boston University, The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea (Princeton University Press 2026).
Alexandre Frenette, Vanderbilt University, Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking into the Creative Economy (Princeton University Press 2026).
Isabel Jijon, Harvard University, Good Kids: The Politics of Child Labor in the Global South (Stanford University Press).
Sanyu A. Mojola, Princeton University, Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol (California University Press 2025).
Zeynep Ozgen, New York University, Pious Politics: Cultural Foundations of the Islamist Movement in Turkey (Cambridge University Press 2025).
Hannah Regan, Case Western Reserve University, Dating Apps, Modern Romance, and Social Inequality (Bloomsbury 2025).
Dorothy E. Roberts, University of Pennsylvania, The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family (Atria/One Signal Publishers 2026).
Brandon Andrew Robinson, University of California-Riverside, Trans Pleasure: On Gender Liberation and Sexual Freedom (University of California Press 2026).
Chandra Russo, Colgate University, White Flank: Organizing White People for Racial Justice (Stanford University Press).
Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University, Marked By Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans (Harvard University Press 2026).
Angela Simms, Barnard College-Columbia University, Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia (Russell Sage 2026).
Carolina Valdivia, University of California-Irvine, Sanctuary Making: Immigrant Families Reshaping Geographies of Deportability (University of California Press 2026).
In Memoriam
James Petras—world-renowned sociologist, public intellectual, and scholar of Latin American politics and global economics—died peacefully on January 17, 2026, in Seattle at the age of 89. Petras was a prolific scholar and activist, authoring more than 62 books and hundreds of academic articles in leading journals, including in the American Sociological Review. He received the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the ASA Section on Marxist Sociology in 2002. You can read a full-length obituary here.