Section members in ASA Footnotes
Several section members are featured in the latest issue of ASA Footnotes which looks at Sociology and the Potential of Community-Engaged Scholarship. See below!
Read moreChair’s Message (January 2022)
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year, and welcome to the January 2022 CUSS Chair’s message.
What a time to be studying the importance of place and community! As we begin the new year, please spread the word about our section to people who seem interested in places and communities and who may not realize that CUSS is a home for them within ASA. CUSS membership was 600 in 2019, 552 in 2020, and 640 in 2021. Let’s reach out to our people so that we can connect them to our section (and have as many paper sessions as possible).
Personally, I am starting 2022 with an intention to serve my students, colleagues, and community and to consistently maintain that spirit through the year by keeping my heart and mind open to possibilities. I look forward to working with all of you to help you continue your passion for research, teaching, service, and activism as we collectively deal with the uncertainty and anxiety of the times. I am eager for us to connect and share how the pandemic has affected our approaches to community and urban sociology.
I must take this opportunity to invite you to submit a paper to the 2022 ASA conference. The portal is open for submissions, and the deadline is 11:59 PM on February 9, 2022. Let’s show up (if we can, of course)!
Read moreChair’s Message (December 2021)
Dear CUSS Members,
Happy Holidays! Welcome to the December Chair’s message.
In terms of CUSS membership, we have 640 members (174 student members and 431 regular members). Please encourage students and colleagues to join!
Please consider submitting a paper to the upcoming ASA conference. The 2022 Annual Meeting portal is open for submissions. The deadline to submit is February 9, 2022, at 11:59PM.
To better support our student CUSS members at this difficult time, Council voted to provide a one-time travel grant to CUSS student members whose papers are accepted for presentation to any session or roundtable. Applicants must be active members of the section, but they do not need to present on a section session or roundtable. We will offer up to five awards of $300 to offset travel costs. If the conference is virtual, we will pay the student registration fee. We will prioritize students without access to other travel funds. The application deadline will be March 15, 2022. We are still finalizing details and will send additional information on the application process.
We will have five open panels and a roundtable session. Below, please find the panel topics, descriptions, and organizers for this year’s CUSS Sessions. Please contact the organizers or Theo Greene (tgreene@bowdoin.edu) with questions.
Read moreCUSS 2022 Meeting Sessions
Dear CUSS Members:
The ASA Annual Meeting submission portal is now open for the 2022 meetings in Los Angeles (deadline for submissions: February 9). Please consider submitting your papers to CUSS Section sessions! This year we will have five open panels (plus a roundtable session). Below, please find the panels topics, descriptions, and organizers for this year’s CUSS Sessions. You are welcome to contact the organizers or me (tgreene@bowdoin.edu) with questions about the panel.
Read moreMessage from the Chair (November 2021)
Dear CUSS Members,
Welcome to my November Chair’s message. I am excited to report that many graduate students and junior faculty have expressed great interest in meeting new people and helping to organize the 2022 ASA conference. As we work hard to prepare for it, I would like to remind you to submit a paper to the conference. I know it’s hard to picture attending a conference again, but I hope you will see this as an opportunity to develop some ideas and share them
with us!
Also, I want to let you know that the Membership Committee is planning a preconference. Ryan Center and Juan Martinez will share more on that later, as they gather information on our last preconference and consider formats for
the next one.
Finally, many of us may not know that CUSS has an archive that Lyn Lofland compiled. Materials span the period from the early 1970s through roughly 2010 and are housed in the Special Collections Library at Penn State. Barry Lee at
Penn State brought the status of the archive to my attention, so Council will soon meet with him to discuss plans for preserving it. I will keep you posted on this.
Warmly,
Rachael A. Woldoff,
Chair, Community and Urban Sociology Section
Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, West Virginia University
Excellence in Teaching in Community & Urban Sociology Award
The Community and Urban Sociology Section invites nominations to the inaugural Excellence in Teaching in Community and Urban Sociology award, which will be given in alternating years. This award recognizes members who are outstanding teachers in the field. Nominations should include a 750 word statement that addresses: (1) the nominee’s pedagogy or approach to teaching, (2) how the nominee demonstrates and understands excellence in teaching and (3) how the nominee supports students and student-faculty interactions in community and urban sociology. Submissions should also include one piece of evidence that demonstrates teaching excellence. This can include but is not limited to: a letter from a student, a letter from a colleague, a letter from a community partner, course syllabus, publication (including TRAILS), or a teaching award. We particularly encourage nominations from people who have a demonstrated commitment to teaching students from marginalized communities, community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, among others. Nominations (including self-nominations) should be sent to cussteachingaward@gmail.com no later than March 1, 2022.
Message from the Chair (Oct. 2021)
Welcome to October 2021!
This is my second Chair’s message, and we have accomplished a great deal in a short time. I am so proud of the work of Council members, committee members, and volunteers during this challenging time. I am especially thankful to the outgoing and current members of the Publications Committee for helping to revise the bylaws to comply with ASA’s policies. The changes passed in council and will be on the ballot next year. I am also grateful to the Reception Committee and Jan Lin (Chair) for volunteering to plan this event, which will bring us back together in person again. We increased the budget this year to make sure we find a space in Los Angeles that will be safe and festive. I look forward to reconnecting and hearing about your work and lives from the past two years and honoring our awards winners.
I also want to let you know that Council voted to donate $2,500 to the ASA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), and we also voted to add this to the budget as a line item in coming years so that giving will be ongoing. This is very important as giving varies by year; some sections do not give at all, some give a little (under a thousand), and some give a lot (several thousand). The MFP needs funds to pay fellows and to pay them better, and I am proud that our section wants to prioritize this.
Finally, I want to thank those serving on the Membership Committee, the Awards Committees, and those helping to organize sessions and put together the election slate. We have invited everyone to participate in the process if they have time. The sessions look fresh and exciting, and we have an extra session in 2022!
Warmly,
Rachael A. Woldoff,
Chair, Community and Urban Sociology Section
Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, West Virginia University
CUSS Call for nominations
From Mary Fischer:
As our Section Nominations Coordinator I’m reaching out to the membership to ask for volunteers to either run or nominate someone for one of our leadership positions. These are volunteer positions that will take up some of your valuable time–but they’re important, intrinsically rewarding, and a great way to shape the directions our section will take and to get to know some of your colleagues. Here is a brief rundown of our open positions and their main tasks (all positions start August 2022):
Read moreCall for 2022 Community & Urban Soc. Awards
Below are the 2022 award calls for the CUSS section. All award submissions are due March 1st. Please contact the committee chair with any questions regarding any of these awards. This call is also posted on the section website – https://www.asanet.org/communities-sections/sections/section-award-nomination-calls#communityandurbansociology
Jean Beaman
Message from New Section Chair
Dear CUSS members, I would like to begin my first Chair’s Message by expressing gratitude to Derek Hyra for his leadership during a difficult year and for assembling teams of people who created successful sessions and meetings at the online version of ASA’s annual meeting. I also want to thank our Secretary Treasurers, Mary J. Fischer and Yuki Kato. Special thanks to Yuki, who is staying on in that role for one more year after stepping in mid-term. They have made our section better and are helping me to transition into the role of Chair.
Read more
Community and Urban Sociology 