Departmental News and Events

 

 

 

Harriet Presser receives AAUW's 2007 Founders Distinguished Senior Scholar Award

Congratulations to Harriet Presser, who has been selected by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation Board of Directors as the recipient of the 2007 Founders Distinguished Senior Scholar Award! This award is being bestowed on Harriet Presser for her lifetime of outstanding college and university teaching, her impressive publication record, and the impact she has had on women in our profession and in the community. She is being recognized, in the words of the award letter, for "the phenomenal contributions you have made to your field, to women, and to academia at large." The AAUW Educational Foundation will honor her with the Senior Scholar Award during the AAUW National Convention on the evening of Monday, July 2, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona.  The award carries a cash honorarium of $10,000 and Harriet will be asked to speak at the National Convention about her scholarship and work on behalf of women in the profession and community.  

 

 

Sociology sweeps BSOS awards

Four of our department members have won BSOS Awards and will be recognized at the BSOS Spring Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 3, 2007. The award recipients are: Laura Mamo - faculty recipient of the BSOS Excellence in Teaching Award and Naznene Kane - graduate student recipient of the BSOS Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, Vanessa Wight and Sonya Rastogi have both been selected as recipients of the BSOS George M. Phillips Award. This award recognizes outstanding graduate student contributions to topics involving community and public concerns. Each will get a $1000 cash prize!

 

 

Patricia Hill Collins wins 2007 ASA Distinguished Book Award

Patricia Hill Collins’s book, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, wins the 2007 ASA Distinguished Book Award, an annual award is given for a single book or monograph published in the three preceding calendar years. It is an incisive and provocative analysis of Black masculinity and femininity that questions the links between prevailing Black sexual politics, their connection to black gender ideology, and struggles for African American empowerment in response to this new racism.  Collins addresses the need for African Americans to rebel against the ideas and practices that disempower them, underscoring different conceptions of femininity and masculinity that do not simply mimic those of White men and women, but that reflect the needs of actual lived Black experience and that contribute toward building a true democracy in the United States. A revolutionary work that touches the intimate and public lives of African Americans, Black Sexual Politics clearly illuminates the subtle interplay of race, sex, and politics in American culture today.

 

Selected Reviews

"Patricia Hill Collins' brilliant and ground-breaking analysis of the urgency of a more progressive Black sexual politics among African Americans is nothing short of a tour de force."
—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, co-author of Gender Talk

 

"This book is at once a theoretical tour de force and a must read for all who care about the lives of black folk in the twenty-first century."
—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Why I Love Black Women

 

A leading scholar in the field of black feminist studies, Patricia Hill Collins once again challenges readers to think differently, this time about sexuality in black communities. Collins argues for a new black sexual politics, focused on liberating black women and men and highlighting the role of culture in this struggle. This book is sure to spark needed and timely debate.

--Cathy J. Cohen, author of The Boundaries of Blackness

 

 

Annette Lareau awarded new $500,000 Spencer Foundation Grant

Annette Lareau has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation for her project, "Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools" - a new mixed-method study of intergenerational transmission of advantage from grandparents, to parents to children.  One of the most accomplished ethnographers in the U.S., she was appointed as Professor of Sociology in the Fall of 2005 but she spent the 2005-06 academic year as a Fellow at the prestigious Center for the Advanced Study of of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.  Annette’s award winning book, Unequal Childhoods, explores social class differences in childrearing patterns and the implications for the transmission of intergenerational inequality.  Her arguments have received both widespread attention from the scholarly community as well as from the media, with articles about the book on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times and other newspapers. 

 

 

Patricia Hill Collins Nominated for President of the American Sociological Association

Patricia Hill Collins has just accepted the nomination to run for President of the American Sociological Association, a tremendous honor and accomplishment for any sociologist.  If she wins, she will serve as President-Elect during the 2007-08 academic year and as President during the 2008-09 year.

 

 

Troy Duster Speaks at Rosenberg Memorial Forum

Each fall, the Sociology Department hosts a major guest lectureship, the Rosenberg Memorial Forum, endowed in memory of eminent social psychologist Morris Rosenberg who served on the Maryland faculty from 1975 until his death in 1992.  This year’s event was held on October 6 with ASA Past President, Troy Duster of the Department of Sociology at New York University giving the address.  The topic, “A Post-Genomic Surprise: The Molecular Reinscription of Race,” was provocative and thought provoking.  The lecture was well attended and the reception following the event provided the opportunity for further exchange on the topic of biology and race.

 

 

Patricia Hill Collins Named Distinguished University Professor

In Fall 2006, Patricia Hill Collins joined the small, elite group of Distinguished University Professors at UMD, a title conferred in recognition of extraordinary achievement as a teacher, scholar and public servant, the highest honor the university bestows on faculty members.  Pat is a leading feminist social theorist and public sociologist, known the world over for her books such as Black Feminist Thought,  that investigate the ways in which race, class, gender and sexuality intersect to create and maintain inequality in U.S. society and elsewhere.  She joins Harriet Presser and George Ritzer as the third DUP in the Sociology Department!

 

 

Maryland at the ASA in Montreal

Maryland Sociology was prominently featured at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Montreal, Canada in August.  Thanks to Joe Lengermann, we hosted a very successful reception to celebrate the election of Affiliate Faculty member, Bonnie Thornton Dill, UMD Chair of Women’s Studies, as Vice President of the ASA.  The reception also provided an opportunity for alumni to welcome Annette Lareau and Pat Collins to the Department, thank Bill Falk for his long service as Chair, and wish Suzanne Bianchi well in her new role as Chair.  Fifteen of our graduate students were (co)authors of papers presented at the meetings.  Harriet Presser's book, Working in the 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families, was featured in an “Author Meets Critic” session.  Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson, and Melissa Milkie’s new book, Changing Rhythms of American Family Life, was also featured in a session highlighting forthcoming books in the ASA’s prestigious Rose Series.  Eighteen Maryland faculty members presented papers, participated in invited thematic sessions, or led ASA section activities – giving Maryland a prominent presence at this, the major annual gathering of sociologists.

 

 

2006-07 Visitors in the Sociology Department

Sociology is hosting two visiting faculty this academic year:

Dr. Marian Zulean, a Fulbright scholar and a military sociologist from Romania, is spending the Fall 2006 semester in residence at the invitation of David Segal, Director of Maryland’s Center for Research on Military Organization. His appointment was supported by former Ambassador to Romania (and former UM Regent) Jim Rosapepe. Dr. Zulean’s Fulbright research is on the relationship between armed forces & society in an age of globalization. 

 

Dr. Bruce Rankin, Professor at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey is spending the academic year in residence at the invitation of Bill Falk.  Professor Rankin, a graduate of Maryland’s Sociology program, spent at number of years engaged in the study of poverty in the U.S. in collaboration with sociologist William Julius Wilson, first at the University of Chicago and later at Harvard.  Since moving to Turkey, his research has focused on the social impact of the economic crisis that hit Turkey in 2001-2002. During his sabbatical, he will be analyzing data he collected on family and community effects of the crisis, work funded by the Ford Foundation.

 

 

Sociology and Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy

Sociology’s Center for Research on Military Organization, directed by David Segal and Mady Segal is playing a major role in leadership training at the U.S. Naval Academy. In the Summer of 2006, the University of Maryland entered into partnership with the U.S. Naval Academy to provide a Masters in Professional Studies Degree in Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) for an elite group of Junior Officers who will serve as mentors and trainers for the Brigade of Midshipmen.  Three sociology faculty members, Jeff Lucas, David Segal and Mady Segal, are offering courses as part of this program and Sociology doctoral student, Darlene Iskra, a former career Navy officer, is serving as coordinator of the program and also teaching in it.  But Maryland’s influence extends beyond the LEAD program on campus.  Commander Steve Trainer, the first Navy officer to be selected as Permanent Military Professor of Leadership at Annapolis, and a 2005 Maryland Ph.D., has been appointed head of the leadership department. Commanders Wes Huey and David Smith, selected last year to be the third and fourth Permanent Military Professors of Leadership, began their doctoral studies in sociology in Fall 2006.