Community and Urban Sociology

Congratulations to our 2022 Award Winners, and much thanks to the award committees. Award recipients will be honored at our section reception at the ASA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

Robert E. Park Book Award: The Park award (formerly the Park Book Award) goes to the author(s) of the best book published in the past 2 years (2020/2021)

Co-winner: Xuefei Ren’s Governing the Urban in China and India

Co-winner: Jessica Simes’ Punishing Places

Honorable Mention: Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Manuel Pastor’s South Central Dreams

• Committee chair: Marco Garrido, U of Chicago
• Zachary Levenson, U of North Carolina-Greensboro
• Ryan Center, London School of Economics
• Walter J. Nicholls, UC-Irvine

Jane Addams Article Award: The Jane Addams Award (formerly the Park Article Award) goes to authors of the best scholarly article in community and urban sociology published in the past 2 years (2020/2021)

Winner: Junia Howell and Elizabeth Krover-Glenn. 2021. “The Increasing Effect of Neighborhood Racial Composition on Housing Values, 1980–2015” Social Problems 68 (4): 1051-1070.

Honorable Mentions:

– Robin Bartram. 2021. “Cracks in Broken Windows: How Objects Shape Professional Evaluation” American Journal of Sociology 126 (4): 759-794.

– Japonica Brown-Saracino. 2021. “The Afterlife of Identity Politics: Gentrification, Critical Nostalgia, and the Commemoration of Lost Dyke Bars.” American Journal of Sociology 126 (5): 1-63.

• Co-committee chair: Josh Pacewicz, Brown University
• Co-committee chair: John Robinson, Princeton University
• Jeffrey Parker, University of New Orleans
• Watoii Rabii, Oakland University,

Community and Urban Sociology Graduate Student Paper Award: The CUSS Student Paper award goes to the student author of the paper the committee regards as the best graduate student paper in community and urban sociology. 

Winner: The Diversity Contract: Constructing Racial Harmony in a Diverse American Suburb, by Kiara Wyndham Douds (New York University) [Previously published in AJS]

Honorable Mention: The Effect of Community Organizing on Landlords’ Use of Eviction Filing: Evidence from U.S. Cities, by Andrew Messamore (University of Texas at Austin) [not published at the time of submission]

• Committee chair: Jenny Stuber, University of North Florida
• Angel Ross, UC-Berkeley
• Brian Levy, George Mason University
• Francisco Vieyra, SUNY-Albany

Robert and Helen Lynd Award for Lifetime Achievement: This award recognizes distinguished career achievement in community and urban sociology. 

Winner: John Gilderbloom, U of Louisville

• Committee chair: Elijah Anderson, Yale University
• Lisa Lucile Owens, Columbia University
• Samantha Friedman, University at Albany

CUSS Excellence in Teaching in Community and Urban Sociology (new award in 2022; given in alternating years): This award recognizes members who are outstanding teachers in the field.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Community and Urban Sociology Section’s inaugural Excellence in Teaching in Community and Urban Sociology award. This year’s winner is Dr. Albert Fu, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Anthropology & Sociology at Kutztown University (PA). Dr. Fu’s “approach to teaching is interactive, integrative, and engaging” and his excellence in teaching in urban sociology is evident in his rewriting the department’s curriculum in urban sociology, his leadership in “revamping the major requirements and introducing a portfolio requirement that serves as both a capstone requirement and a key assessment tool” and in writing the five year evaluation for the sociology program. He also has “a very strong commitment to teaching students from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds, and to combatting structures of social inequality” and is committed to having his classes engage with the community around them, going on field trips, for example, to urban gardens.  Dr. Fu’s excellence in teaching also extends beyond Kutztown to the profession, where he served as an area editor for ASA TRAILS for Community, Environmental Sociology, Urban Sociology and Human Ecology. His teaching is also entwined with his research, with Dr. Fu receiving the 2016 ASA Carla B Howery Enhancement of Teaching Grant for his project “Assessing a Sociology Living Learning Community: Curriculum, Co-Curricular Activities, and a Culture of Good Writing” and publishing on pedagogy, for example, in his co-authored article “Sociology Portfolio Assessment and Curricular Review” published in 2018 in Teaching Sociology. In recognition of his teaching he received the 2020 ASA Political Economy of the World-System Section’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Fu’s record, accomplishments and practices demonstrate how teaching is central to each of his commitments: teaching within and outside the classroom, his departmental and professional service work, and in his research and publications. Congratulations, Dr. Fu!

• Committee chair: Victoria Reyes, University of California-Riverside
• Carolyn Chernoff, Moore College of Art & Design
• Tennille Allen, Lewis University
• Jacob Lederman, U Michigan-Flint