Sociology faculty, students, honored at ASA conference

Faculty and students in the department of sociology were recognized for career excellence and innovative research at the 118th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association: The Educative Power of Sociology in Philadelphia, PA in mid-August.

William Alex Pridemore, professor and head of the department of sociology, received the 2023 Albert J. Reiss Distinguished Scholarship Award. Presented every other year by the American Sociological Association’s Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance (CLD) in recognition of the contributions to criminological understanding made by Albert J. Reiss, Jr., the award is bestowed upon a distinguished scholar in honor of a lifetime of outstanding scholarship on the sociological understanding of crime, law, and deviance. 

"Bill's innovative and influential scholarship on the effects of social structure, alcohol, and policy on violence rates, spans from rural to urban areas, using units from neighborhoods to nations," said CLD section chair Stacy DeCoster in presented the award. "He is among the most distinguished scholars of international and comparative criminology and, over the course of the last 10-15 years he has authored more international, comparative, and cross-national articles in our discipline’s leading journals than almost any other scholar."  

Pridemore has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and two edited volumes. His scholarship has appeared in top tier journals in sociology, criminology, public health, and substance use. His work has been cited over 7000 times, an indicator of the highly significant impact his work has had on the discipline. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Criminology.

Dawn T. Robinson, professor of sociology and director of Faculty Development int he Owens Institute of Behavioral Research, received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sociology of Emotions Section of the American Sociological Association at their annual meetings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Robinson’s research in the sociology of emotion focuses on the ways in which emotion and affect reflect and feedback into structural arrangements and cultural meanings. Her research demonstrates the link between identity and emotion and characterizes the way that link is culturally situated. Her recent research focuses on how classroom networks shape affective processes, on representations of affective-linguistic culture in North African cultures, on developing non-reactive emotion measures of emotion in social interaction, and on emotional responses to injustice. 

Joseph Hermanowicz, professor of sociology, was elected to the Sociological Research Association.  The highly selective 500-person society of sociological scholars was founded in 1936, annually elects up to 14 new members, and recognizes those selected as among the most successful researchers in their field.  

The author or editor of five books and many articles and chapters that focus on scientific careers, the academic profession, and universities as sites to study organizational culture and institutional behavior, Hermanowicz has sought to advance a sociology of higher education. In addition, his work examines social organizational problems of universities and the academic profession, including, most recently, academic freedom, the structure of recurring threats to it, and comparative differences of the professoriate and its autonomy across national systems of higher education.

PhD student Tenshi Kawashima was awarded the Graduate Student Investigator Award from ASA’s Section on Social Psychology for her research project “Work-role identity and the perception of and responses to distributive injustice.”

PhD student Kylie Smith received Honorable Mention for the Graduate Student Paper Award from ASA’s Section on the Sociology of Emotions for her paper “Emoting Up, Emoting Down: Status, Authenticity, and the Emotional Labour of STEM Graduate Students.” The paper was also recently accepted for publication in Emotions and Society.

PhD student Yue Zhang received the Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Teaching and Learning in recognition of developing an interdisciplinary course entitled 'Society, Bodies, and Health.' The award is “designed to support the next generation of sociology scholars and teachers who are committed to teaching and learning sociology” and is sponsored by Sage and numerous Sage authors.

"These many honors from our field’s primary professional organization highlight the quality and stature of our department and our Ph.D. program," Pridemore said. "I am especially delighted to see the well-deserved recognition of Tenshi, Kylie, and Yue. They and all our outstanding Ph.D. students are already making important research and teaching contributions to the field of sociology and we are proud of their work."

 Image: Gretchen Peterson, Chair of the Sociology of Emotions Section of the American Sociological Association, left, with Dawn Robinson. Photo by Long Doan