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A Note from the Section Chair
We're Hot!
Many of us have begun to think about Hot-lanta as we prepare our ASA papers to send to Richard Arum, the Chair of our section's sessions, and Chandra Muller, the Chair for Sociology of Education's regular section. Richard is working with our member, Jerry Jacobs, section chair of Organizations, Occupations and Work (OOW), to have a joint session this year on "Schools as Organizations and Workplaces." Our members, the majority of who belong to more than one section, share membership in both SOE and in OOW. We are also co-sponsoring a session in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning organized by our member Jeanne Ballantine.
We are happy to report that section membership has reached over 600, which entitles us to four sessions. With the additional sessions that Chandra will have, we should have quite a number of opportunities for people to present papers. We will again have our successful roundtable session. Gary Dworkin our membership chair continues to work on a variety of strategies to recruit new members. Remember that graduate student memberships are $15.00.
A committee of Kevin Dougherty, Joyce Epstein, Chandra Muller, Aaron Pallas, Joan Talbert and, Pamela Barnhouse Walters, were asked to help organize a series of activities and projects that would address some of the initial concerns on the health of our field raised in the paper by Aaron Pallas, which can be accessed on our website. As you may recall there have been some questions about the importance of showing the significance of the discipline of sociology to education. To address this theme more substantively, Joan and Kevin are working with our member Felice Levine at AERA, while Joyce and Pam are working with ASA to develop feature articles and essays on this topic. Steve Brint has taken over leadership for planning a min-conference that is likely to occur during Kevin's watch in 2004.
This past summer the section approved a $3,000 Early Career Initiative and plans are underway for an exciting pre-session meeting for the professional development of our young scholars. This meeting will occur at Morehouse College on Friday, August 15, 2003. Chandra Muller and Brian Powell are planning the program that will focus on themes such as social justice, equality of opportunity, and access and choice. Obie Clayton, the Chair of Sociology at Morehouse College and Sally Kilgore are working with us on arrangements and potential speakers.
One of the most exciting pieces of news occurs through the efforts of
Regina Werum, who put us in contact with Brian Powell's brother, Glenn
Powell. Glenn owns Agnes and Muriel's, which is three miles from
the ASA conference hotel and our section dinner will be held there on
Sunday night, August 17, 2003. We will take over the entire restaurant
including a veranda where we can have a tent and a band. We are looking
for musicians to volunteer. Maybe we could convince Aaron Pallas, the
Bruce Springsteen of our section, to perform as he has for AERA. The cost
of the dinner will be a bit lower than in previous years and there will
be vegetarian options galore and delectable southern cuisine. This is
sure to be a SOE occasion nobody will want to miss.
Remember to send your nominations for this year's Willard Waller Award
for a book to Julia Wrigley, Chair, jwrigley@gc.cuny.edu,
and for the David Stevenson Graduate Student Paper Award to Roslyn Mickelson,
Chair, rmicklsn@email.uncc.edu,
by February 15, 2003. The committee for the Waller award includes Judith
Blau, Brian Powell, and Ricardo Stanton-Salazar. Members of the Stevenson
committee include Duane Alwin, Prudence Carter, Elizabeth Cohen, and Vincent
Roscingo. William Carbonaro chairs the Nominations Committee for this
year and the committee includes Claudia Buchmann, Douglas Downey, and
Sophia Catsambis.
We all should thank our past section chair, Karl Alexander, and his committees
for all of the effort and hard work they put into making our section activities
and awards such important and memorable events. Again our congratulations
to HyunJoon Park, who won the David Stevenson Graduate Student Paper Award.
A special recognition to Steven Brint for winning the Willard Waller Award
for an outstanding article; unfortunately, not listed in Footnotes.
Karl has taken over our journal, Sociology of Education, with an
impressive editorial team consisting of Deputy Editors, Linda Grant and
Suet-ling Pong. Please send them manuscripts and subscribe. The vitality
of our field is certainly grounded in what we write.
And, finally, we should recognize David Levinson, who out of the goodness of his heart, as once again, for the last time, edited our newsletter. Unfailingly he has put together our newsletter with thoughtfulness and care. He deserves our deepest thanks and appreciation.
My best wishes for a happy new year!
Barbara Schneider
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