Contact: Preeti Vasishtha, ASA Director of Communications, (202) 247-9872; Kirsten Hilgeford, Senior Communications Associate, (202) 247-9854; email: [email protected]
July 19, 2023, WASHINGTON DC–The 118th ASA Annual Meeting to be held August 17-21 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, includes several sessions focused on understanding Philadelphia from a sociological perspective. Join us for discussions with experts on criminal justice reform, food politics, immigrant experiences, inclusive politics, and poverty and homelessness in Philadelphia. These will be among the many relevant issues that thousands of sociologists whose work provides insights on these and other vital topics will discuss at the Annual Meeting. Approximately 600 sessions featuring over 3,000 research papers are open to the press.
This year’s theme, “The Educative Power of Sociology,” shows how sociology’s educative power exists within its ability to convey knowledge and research critically, and to even offer solutions and interventions to social problems, from classrooms to boardrooms, individuals and families to communities, institutions to nation-states, and social movements to social change and justice.
Session highlights include:
Criminal Justice Reform in Philadelphia: Current Challenges and Future Directions. Join local scholars and criminal justice reform activists working on issues of policing, law enforcement, and incarceration in the Philadelphia region as they contextualize contemporary challenges facing the criminal justice system in Philadelphia, highlight initiatives to address them, and consider future lines of inquiry and strategies for promoting justice.
Participants: Meredith R. Bergey, Villanova University; Malik Neal, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; Jill McCorkel, Villanova University; Lance E. Hannon, Villanova University; and Mariel Delacruz, Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office
Philadelphia Food Politics. From Philadelphia’s Urban Agriculture Plan: Growing from the Root, which was co-developed by Soil Generation, a Black- and brown-led coalition of growers and advocates, and Interface Studio, a city planning firm, to organizations such as Philadelphia Orchard Project, VietLead, and People’s Kitchen, Philadelphia residents have led efforts to imagine policies and practices that create food sovereignty and food justice. This session will showcase efforts to address the politics of food in Philadelphia, concluding with ideas about community-based food security pedagogy.
Participants: Kelly A. Joyce, Drexel University; Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania; Christian Hunold, Drexel University; Kim Jordan, Philadelphia Orchard Project; Benjamin Miller, The People’s Kitchen Philly; and Steve Vasquez Dolph, Drexel University
Philadelphia as a Reemerging Immigrant Destination. Philadelphia has reemerged as an important immigrant destination. This panel will help attendees gain insight into the complexity and variability of immigrant experiences in the region.
Participants: Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania; Rebbeca Tesfai, Temple University; Zhenoa Flippen, University of Pennsylvania; Emilio A. Parrado, University of Pennsylvania; Blair Sackett, Brown University; Amada Armenta, University of California-Los Angeles; Helen B. Marrow, Tufts University; Dina G. Okamoto, Indiana University-Bloomington; and Veronica Montes, Bryn Mawr College
Inclusive Politics in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. This panel consists of people who have participated in or led efforts to bring marginalized and often underrepresented groups into politics in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. They will discuss the major issues in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania politics, discuss the role of the city and the state in national electoral politics, and address the challenges and successes of their efforts to make politics relevant to people who are often disengaged, and their visions for the future of the region.
Participants: Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore College; Wendy D. Roth, University of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Matthew Smucker, University of California-Berkeley; Jamie Gauthier, Philadelphia City Council; Muzzamal Afzal, Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance & Politics and Equal Participation Lab; and Kendra Brooks, City of Philadelphia
Poverty and Homelessness in Philadelphia. This session brings together scholars, activists, and policymakers to discuss issues of poverty and homelessness in Philadelphia. Topics include encampments and responses to them, policy ideas to address homelessness and housing affordability, and tenants’ rights in the face of eviction orders, among other topics.
Participants: Helen Gym, former Philadelphia City Councilmember; Cheri Honkala, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign; Judith A. Levine, Temple University; Nikil Saval, Pennsylvania State Senate; and Stephanie Sena, Villanova University Anti-poverty Fellow/Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia
All ASA sessions except business meetings are open to credentialed journalists and freelancers with assignment letters or clips from credentialed outlets. Complimentary media registration is open; read the press policy and register online. Search the program (updated June 1; any changes to the program after June 1 are reflected on the Annual Meeting portal) for keywords to find sessions of interest. Registered media will have access to the portal.
About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.
Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer‐reviewed journals.
