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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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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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!
Read moreThe 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!
Read moreDerek 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!
Read moreCity and Community launched a new Graduate Editorial Assistants Program this year. The aim has been to expose doctoral students to academic publishing, help them to become professional evaluators of academic writing, and support them in their own work. They also received a $250 stipend for their participation.
This year, there were four doctoral students. As part of the editorial team, students have been learning how academic publishing works through seminar-like sessions with the editor and managing editor. They have helped evaluate new submissions to determine their fit and look for potential reviewers. They also meet regularly as a group to discuss academic publishing and workshop drafts of their papers.
Here are the four students and a little blurb from each one about themselves and what they’re getting out of the program:
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Dr. Esther Hio-Tong Castillo is the Director of Racial Equity, Storytelling, and Community Impact for the City of Philadelphia. Previously, she served as the Programs Manager for the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Temple University in 2017. Benny Witkovsky interviewed Dr. Castillo about her work in Philadelphia earlier this spring. Thanks for speaking with us!
Tell me about the work you have done in Philadelphia with the Asian community.
The first time that I worked directly with the Asian community in Philadelphia was when I volunteered as a Census trainer in Chinatown. In late 2019, the City of Philadelphia was recruiting multilingual trainers to ensure that everyone filled out the census, including immigrants and refugees. At that time, I gave a training presentation in Cantonese to about 100 older residents in Chinatown. To my surprise, they were very enthusiastic about filling out the census. Through this experience, I connected with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC), my former employer. They asked me if I would be willing to lead a program that aims to promote mental health and wellness in the Chinese immigrant community because they just received a grant from the Scattergood Foundation. I said yes.
Read moreAgainst the Odds: The Real Power of Science, Data, and Facts to Win Progressive Victories
John Hans Gilderbloom is a Professor in the Graduate Planning, Public Administra- tion, Public Health, and Urban Affairs program at the University of Louisville. Dr. Gilderbloom is considered one of the most influential figures in urban affairs with an emphasis on sustainability, housing, health and transportation. His fingerprints are all over cities throughout the world. As the winner of the 2022 Robert and Helen Lynd Award for Lifetime Achievement, Dr. Gilderbloom has graciously agreed to be interviewed for our newsletter. Thank you, John, and congratulations!
I am a gunshot survivor. I am grateful to be alive. But I prefer to let the enemies of science know I have learned to thrive. The gunshot resulted in a partial loss of eyesight and hearing, and balance issues. I have post-traumatic stress disorder, despite years of therapy. Before the shooting, The Nation magazine in May 1979 quoted a letter stating that powerful people in the real estate industry were going to “neutralize me” if I continued to advocate for renter rights. I was told I would never survive, yet 43 years later I am thriving with energy, passion, joy, and love. I persisted.
Read moreAlbert Fu is a Professor of Sociology at Kutztown University. As both an urban and environmental sociologist, his research examines the intersection between built and natural environments. Dr. Fu is also interested in how “culture” creates, defines, and controls space. At Kutztown, he regularly teaches Principles of Sociology, Sociological Imagination, Social Inequality, Urban Sociology, and Environmental Sociology. As the inaugural winner of the biannual CUSS Teaching Award, Steven Schmidt reached out to Dr. Fu to discuss his teaching, and we’ve included his responses below. Thanks for participating in our interview series!
Who (or what) inspired you to become a teacher? Did you have any classroom experiences earlier that influenced how you teach now?
I have had so many great teachers (at all levels) over the years that have impacted my teaching. A story I often share with students is how my high school English teacher Mrs. Karen Harwood recommended that I be moved from the regular curriculum to the honors/advanced placement curriculum – despite not being a 4.0 student. In this way, Mrs. Harwood had a massive impact on my life, and I think it’s essential to pay it forward as an educator. It’s important to look out for creativity and curiosity beyond traditional grades.
Read moreJessica Simes was the co-winner of the 2022 Robert E. Park Book Award for her book, Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment. CUSS publication team member Kyle Galindez reached out to Jessica to discuss the genesis of her book and what is next for her research agenda. Thanks, Jessica, and congratulations again!
What were the main findings of your research?
Punishing Places addresses a fundamental question at the intersection of urban and punishment research: How do place-based disadvantages and residential segregation shape patterns of incarceration in the United States? While mass incarceration has mainly been theorized as the result of macro-level policies or micro-level discrimination, place is an under-appreciated meso-level mechanism of high imprisonment rates and racial disparities. To fill this gap, I apply spatial analysis to administrative records with unprecedented geographic detail that include all prison admissions in Massachusetts spanning 20 years. I contextualize this analysis with U.S. county-level jail and prison admissions data, as well as interview data. I leverage these data to expand our understanding of mass incarceration in three key ways. First, I demonstrate a historically new and nearly universal shift in the location of high incarceration rates from large urban areas to small cities, suburbs, and rural communities. Second, I show why mass incarceration must be conceptualized as a legacy of racial residential segregation in the U.S. I find remarkable consistency in Black and Latino neighborhood incarceration rates despite recent geographic shifts in prison admissions and emergent trends in incarceration rates within white neighborhoods. Finally, I argue that existing measures of mass incarceration fail to capture its broad consequences for community well-being and social inclusion; I thus reconceptualize it as a form of community loss, and draw from environmental science to define a concept of punishment vulnerability.
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Community and Urban Sociology 