Category Archives: Newsletter

City Spotlight Chicago: Don’t Go

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Cover photo credit: Tonika Lewis Johnson; Cover design: David A. Gee
Images and excerpts reprinted with permission from Polity Press.

Maria Krysan, University of Illinois Chicago

Have you ever been told “Don’t Go” to Chicago’s south or west sides? And/or that they are dangerous? 

I have.

I moved to Chicago in 2000 to take an assistant professor job at the University of Illinois Chicago. It was the tightest rental market in recent memory, so rentals were expensive and hard to find, and I only had a weekend. After a failed attempt to find an apartment in the city, I went to the only logical next place if you are a student of residential segregation: Oak Park, a village on the western border of Chicago, famous among sociologists for its intentional pursuit of an integrated community in the midst of a notoriously segregated city (see The Oak Park Strategy by Carole Goodwin for an early history).

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2025 CUSS Award Winners

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Congratulations to our award winners and honorable mentions!

Jane Addams Article Award

Winner: Stephanie Ternullo. 2024. “Place-Based Partisanship: How Place (Re) produces Americans’ Partisan Attachments.” American Journal of Sociology, 130(2), 293-343.

Honorable Mention: Nima Dahir & Jackelyn Hwang. 2025. “Who Owns the Neighborhood? Ethnoracial Composition of Property Ownership and Neighborhood Trajectories in San Francisco”. City & Community, 24(1), 3-25.

Committee: Jan Doering and Christof Brandtner (co-chairs), Emily Walton, Luis Nuño, and Kasey Zapatka.

Book Award

Co-winners:

Randol Contreras (UC Riverside), The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2024.

Stephanie Ternullo (Harvard), How the Heartland went Red: Why Local Forces Matter in an Age of Nationalized Politics, Princeton University Press, 2024.

Honorable mention:

Tony Cheng (Duke), The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, and the Illusion of Public Input, University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Committee: Tanya Golash Boza (chair), Nate Ela, Jean Lin, Robert Durán, and Janina Selzer

Student Paper Award

Winner: Max Lubell (UT-Austin), “Do Schools Provide a Reprieve from Residential Neighborhood Violence?”

Committee:  Jeremy Levine (chair), Anna Fox, Lacee Satcher, and Jaleh Jalili

Early Career Award

Co-winners: Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana (SUNY Albany) and Elizabeth Korver-Glenn (UNC)

Committee:  Elena Vesselinov (chair), Mervyn Horgan, Jerome Hodos, and Ian Kennedy

Publicly Engaged Research Award

Winner: Esther Sullivan (University of Colorado Denver)

Committee: Jeni Cross (chair), Brandon Alston, Derek Hyra, and Joanne Derouen

Interview w/ Jean Yen-Chun Lin

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Jean Yen-Chun Lin, an Associate Professor at California State University – East Bay, was co-winner of the 2024 Outstanding Book Award. Jean’s innovative research agenda centers on social movements, community organizations, and civic participation. We reached out to ask her to discuss her award-winning book, and we’re including her responses below. Thanks to Jean for participating in our interview series!

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Interview w/ Mario Luis Small

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The 2024 Robert and Helen Lynd Award for Lifetime Achievement in Community and Urban Sociology was awarded to Professor Mario Luis Small. Professor Small is the Chair and Quetelet Professor of Social Science in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. His books include Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio, Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life, Someone To Talk To: How Networks Matter in Practice and Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research. Among many other awards and honors, Professor Small is a previous winner of both the CUSS awards for best article and best book.   

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Interview w/ Tanya Golash-Boza

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Before Gentrificaiton

Tanya Golash-Boza, a Professor at the University of California – Merced and the Executive Director of the University of California Washington Center, was co-winner of the 2024 Outstanding Book Award. Tanya’s innovative research agenda focuses on how racism intersects with capitalism and how the legal system creates and upholds inequities. We reached out to ask her to discuss her award-winning book, and we’re including her responses below. Thanks to Tanya for participating in our interview series!

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Interview w/ Azat Zana Gündoğan 2024 Teaching Award Winner

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The CUSS Excellence in Teaching Award Committee, consisting of Albert Fu, Judith Halasz, Colleen Wynn, and Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, has selected Azat Zana Gündoğan as the section’s 2024 winner. He is currently an Associate Teaching Professor in the University Honors Program and holds Affiliate Faculty status in the Sociology Department at Florida State University. In his role, he has built up a diverse portfolio of urban-oriented courses and has been involved in co-curricular activities in the honors program. Student letters noted his, “innovative teaching methods, passion for the topic, and uniquely interdisciplinary focus.” Another letter highlighted Dr. Gündoğan’s helping the student “appreciate the learning process itself.” Albert Fu reached out to him to discuss his teaching. Thanks to Azat for participating in our interview series!

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Interview with Derek Hyra, Winner of the 2023 Publicly-Engaged Scholar Award

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Derek Hyra, Professor of Public Administration and Policy and Founding Director of the Metropolitan Policy Center at American University, won the 2023 ASA Community and Urban Sociology section’s Publicly Engaged Scholar Award. Derek, an expert in neighborhood change, housing policy, urban politics, and race, served as board chair of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Alexandria Planning Commissioner and is currently a member of the City of Falls Church Planning Commission. His research and advocacy have informed national legislative debates on the subprime lending crisis as well as secured greater affordable housing funds and improved mixed-income housing developments in Virginia. Thalia Tom reached out to him to discuss his research. Thanks to Derek for participating in our interview series!

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Chair’s Message: Summer 2024

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By Elena Vesselinov

July 12, 2024

Dear all,

As we approach the ASA Annual Meeting in Montreal, and therefore the end of my term as the section’s chair, I would like to share some reflections. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve the section in many different roles over the years, including as chair. The most remarkable affair for me to witness, in this latest position, was the enthusiasm of our members to take part in all different section activities. Throughout the year, members readily responded to all calls for participation! For example, the section’s awards committees had the privilege of reviewing numerous excellent nominations and selected outstanding winners and honorable mentions for all awards. We will celebrate this successful award season at the CUSS reception!

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City Spotlight: Montréal

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In our summer issues, the CUSS newsletter team solicits a short piece that introduces CUSS members to the location of the ASA annual meeting. This year, Jan Doering (Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, jan.doering@utoronto.ca) generously agreed to write this year’s city spotlight. Thank you, Jan, for your introduction to Montréal! 

Montréal, a contradictory city

Montréal is unlike any other North American city, and I am not working up to the tired observation that Montréal is “so European.” What makes Montréal unique is its contradictory status as a multilingual and diverse city in Québec, a province that proudly insists on the dominance of the French language and Québécois identity. This contradictory status frequently pits Montréal against its province but also produces social conflict within the city, inflecting how debates unfold and how local issues are addressed (see also Carpentier 2022).

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