Contemporary Sociology Comes to UC-Irvine

by Christine Byrd, University of California-Irvine

Faculty at the University of California-Irvine (UCI) will co-edit the journal Contemporary Sociology for three years beginning in January 2006. In collaboration with UCI’s School of Social Ecology and the School of Social Sciences, the journal will be co-edited by Valerie Jenness, David Smith, and Judith Stepan-Norris.

Recognizing that Contemporary Sociology is a site for lively discussions and exchanges as well as a place to consider the larger issues in the field, the UCI team plans to continue features such as themed symposia and “author meets the critics” exchanges. They are preparing to develop a series of discussions to systematically highlight the ways in which sociology can inform public debate and public policy.

The team will draw heavily on the wealth of talent within the Department of Sociology, which includes 23 faculty, and the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, with its 22 faculty (six of whom also hold courtesy appointments in sociology).

In choosing the editorial board, the co-editors plan to select members representing a diverse range of geographic locations, subfields, backgrounds, and home institutions.

Jenness, Smith, and Stepan-Norris worked together previously on the editorial team for Social Problems (1999 to 2002). As co-editors of Contemporary Sociology, each will assume responsibility for processing books in his or her area of expertise.

About the Co-editors

Jenness is Professor and Chair of Criminology, Law and Society and a professor in the sociology department at UCI. Her research focuses on the links between deviance and social control (especially law), gender, and social change (especially social movements). She has published numerous articles on the politics of prostitution, AIDS and civil liberties, hate crimes and hate crime law, and multiple social movements in the United States. She is currently working on a multi-year study of prison violence, including rape.

Jenness has a multitude of editorial experiences, including serving as an associate editor for Social Problems, as well as being advisory editor for the journals Criminology, Social Problems, Gender & Society, Research in Political Sociology, Sexuality & Culture, and Race, Sex and Class.

Jenness is the co-editor of Public Policy, Democracy, and Social Movements (University of Minnesota Press, 2005). She is author of three books: Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement Practice (Russell Sage Foundation, 2001), Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence (Aldyne de Gruyter, 1997), and Making it Work: The Prostitutes’ Rights Movement in Perspective (Aldyne de Gruyter, 1993). Her research has been published in American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Law & Society Review, Gender & Society, Social Problems, American Behavioral Scientist, Sociological Perspectives, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Law and Critique, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, and the Journal of Hate Studies.

Jenness has been recognized with awards from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the University of California. Jenness has presented her research to the U.S. Congress and the National Academy of Sciences.

Smith is a Professor of Sociology and a Professor of Planning, Policy and Design at UCI. As a comparative sociologist, his research interests include international trade and exchange in the world-economy (and it’s implications for economic growth and development; global industrialization and “commodity chains”—especially in the Pacific Rim region.) He specializes in apparel and garment manufacturing; the dynamics of technological dependence, and technology transfer in East Asia; Third World cities and development; and global urbanization). Previously, Smith was editor of Social Problems, and served on the editorial board of the ASA Rose Monograph Series. He is currently a member of the system-wide University of California Press Editorial Committee, and serves on the editorial and advisory board of the Journal of World-System Research, Research in Political Sociology, and Urban Studies.

With a grant from the National Science Foundation, Smith is currently researching globalization in the network of world cities, combining statistical analysis of city-to-city connections with case studies of particular urban areas. Recently, he was involved with several research projects doing on-site research in South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. Smith is the author of Third World Cities in Global Perspective (Westview Press, 1996). He is co-editor of the forthcoming Nature, Raw Materials and Political Economy (Elsevier, 2005), Labor Versus Empire: Race, Gender and Migration (Routledge Press, 2004), States and Sovereignty in the Global Economy (Routledge, 1999), and A New World Order? Global Transformations in the Late Twentieth Center (Greenwood Press, 1995). His research has been published in American Sociological Review; Social Forces; Population Research and Policy Review; International Migration Review; Review of International Political Economy; American Behavioral Scientist; Science, Technology and Human Values; Urban Studies; Urban Affairs Quarterly; and International Social Science Journal.

Stepan-Norris is a Professor of Sociology at UCI, and Associate Director of UCI’s Center for the Study of Democracy. Her research interests center on the interrelationships between union leadership, union democracy, and workers’ consciousness. Her work has focused on American unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from the 1930s through the mid-1950s, when union political activities were at a peak. Her recent research focuses on how workers’ participation in highly democratic, militant, and radical union local politics impacted their political actions in their neighborhoods. Another project (with Rick Grannis) investigates kinship patterns of the American elite, and asks whether the American Revolution marked the end to the power and privilege of families descended from aristocratic lineages. She is also investigating the revitalization of the U.S. labor movement by focusing on AFL-CIO’s Union Summer program, and its role in union victories as well as its consequences for recruiting labor activists.

Stepan-Norris has served as an associate editor for Social Problems and an editorial board member for both Mobilization: An International Journal, the ASA Rose Monograph Series, Sociological Perspectives and Sociological Inquiry.