About SAN
The Sociology Action Network (SAN) provides support, resources, and educational opportunities to sociologists who are interested in collaborative, community-engaged approaches to research and teaching and helps ASA and its members understand and recognize these approaches as essential to today’s sociology. Sociologists can be useful to civic actors in a wide variety of ways, including by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data about communities through face-to-face interviews, surveys, or focus groups; designing and conducting program evaluations; reviewing technical reports and social science literature; and providing consultations and trainings on social dynamics that impact groups, group members, and their interactions with others. Sociologists study social dynamics within a broad array of topics, including crime, law, and deviance; housing; families and the life course; sexualities; race and ethnicity; medicine and health; inequalities and stratification; immigration; and work and organizations. Collaborations between sociologists and community members can provide communities with access to social science research tools and the knowledge needed to use them effectively.SAN Advisory Board
Teresa Irene Gonzales (Chair)
Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng
Maria Krysan
Steve McKay
Carrie L. Smith
Mark R. Warren
Click here to view profiles of the SAN Advisory Board members.
Toolkit: How to Include Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Tenure and Promotion Process
The elements in this toolkit are designed for use by sociology departments, faculty, and tenure and promotion reviewers as they work to address the persistent disconnect between the reward structures in institutions of higher education and the aspiration to use scholarly work to address real-world problems.
Examples of Sociologists Participating in Community-Engaged Scholarship
Current CARI (Community Action Research Grant) Winners:
Nabila N. Islam, Brown University
Immigration Dialogue: Resisting and Raising Awareness about Digital Surveillance and Detention of Immigrants
Janaina Saad, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dreaming Together: The Collective Organization of Support Centers for Informal Workers in Brazil
Shelly Steward, The Workers Lab
Understanding and Addressing the Challenges of Disabled Workers
For full descriptions of these projects, click here.
Resources for Getting Started with Community-Engaged Scholarship
- Webinar: Incorporating Community Engaged Scholarship Into Your Tenure and Promotion Materials by ASA Community Engaged Scholars and Teachers
- Community-engaged Research: A Quick-Start Guide for Researchers, UCSF Community Engagement
- Footnotes: Sociology and the Potential of Community-Engaged Scholarship
- Community Engaged Research for Impact, SAN/SPSS Webinar
- Principles and Guidelines for Community-University Research Partnerships (Yale Center for Clinical Investigation)
- Sample Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Research Projects Involving Students
- CARI (Community Action Research Grant) Description and Application Information
- Sociological Initiatives Foundation Available Grants