Dear Colleagues,
In light of the rash of racist and xenophobic activities on campuses across the nation, it seems important to us as leaders of the ASA to reaffirm to our members our core organizational and disciplinary values. As an association devoted to advancing the discipline of sociology and the professional lives of sociologists, ASA has a long and ongoing history of activity supporting diversity, inclusion, free inquiry, and academic freedom.
Post-election activity
The day after the election, we began to harness the power of sociology to understand the election and its implications. We asked our members to post pieces to our blog on some aspect of the campaign, the electorate, the polling processes, or the policy issues raised by this election and then consider the insights and understandings that arise from the application of the data and methods within our sociology toolkit. Read the interesting contributions of Arne Kalleberg and Richard Arum and Joan Malczewski and submit your own thoughts.
President Michele Lamont also penned an op-ed addressing the importance of social science in the Trump era, Trump’s Triumph and Social Science Adrift…What is to be Done? and will be developing several sessions for the 2017 Annual Meeting program on this subject.
Executive Director Nancy Kidd has had several meetings in recent days with leaders of other learned societies and with leaders of advocacy organizations focused on the social sciences and beyond to develop strategies for encouraging the new administration to both use science in its decision-making and espouse the values that will strengthen our educational institutions as safe places for inquiry and discussion.
The salience of our previously scheduled Twitter chat has increased in the current post-election climate. Please join ASA Council member Tanya Golash-Boza ( @tanyaboza) on Tuesday, December 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST and Wednesday, December 7 at 1:00 p.m. EST for Twitter chats with the hashtag #InclusiveASA. Come share your ideas for how to have a more inclusive ASA and how ASA can foster more inclusion in departmental life and in academia more generally.
We are monitoring developments and may consider further action if appropriate.
Ongoing programs
ASA is involved with a large portfolio of relevant programmatic initiatives, and we mention just a few here.
Now in its 43rd year, the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) is ASA’s pre-doctoral training program for students of color which provides financial support, mentoring, professional development, and a network of current and past Fellows. The objective of MFP is to increase the number of minority scholars completing doctoral degrees in sociology to both address the severe underrepresentation of minority faculty as the student population has become more diverse and to enhance sociological scholarship with the inclusion of the research perspectives of minority scholars.
ASA is also a founding member of the Collaborative for Enhancing Diversity in Science (CEDS), a multi-association, multi-disciplinary coalition. CEDS has hosted workshops on a number of topics including best practices in data collection on diversity and effective diversity programming for associations. CEDS is currently focusing on mentoring across the sciences for early-career scholars of color.
ASA is currently engaged in work supported by a National Science Foundation grant called Science of Broadening Participation: Stratification in Academic Career Trajectories. The project examines the placement and productivity of underrepresented minority faculty members in the disciplines of sociology and economics. A component of this project focuses on the impact of networks on departmental experiences and feelings of inclusion and exclusion.
Organizational Structure
ASA’s structure also reflects our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We have four status committees—for women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ people in sociology—that report directly to the Council, and we have a number of sections focused on scholarship in areas that inform some of the most important policy questions of our time related to inequality. We also launched a new journal, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, two years ago. Our Council reviews annual nomination slates for elected Association officers and leadership appointments for their adherence to the ASA diversity policy, and the ASA Committee on Publications reviews editorial board nominations for the Association’s scholarly journals with the same lens.
We thank you for being a part of our community. Your membership keeps ASA strong so we can continue to do the work that reflects our core values as a discipline at a time when sociology is deeply needed.
Best,
Michèle Lamont, ASA President
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, ASA President-elect
Ruth Milkman, ASA Past President
Nancy Kidd, ASA Executive Officer
