2019 Conference
PSA’s 90th annual conference was held Thursday, March 28 to Sunday, March 31, 2019, in Oakland, California, at the Marriott Downtown/City Center
THEME: “Engaging Millennials: Researching and Teaching about Power, Diversity, and Change”
PRESIDENT: Elaine Bell Kaplan, University of Southern California
VICE PRESIDENT: Kathy Kuipers, University of Montana
PROGRAM CHAIR: Sharon Davis, University of La Verne
The Millennial Leftists Are Emerging: Are Sociologists Ready for Them?
Recently, I filled out a survey that asked me “What is your gender? Select up to two. What is your race/ethnicity? Select up to two.” We have choices here, the questions implied. What a unique idea!
This discussion of Millennials, including the Z generation (born between 1997 and 2000) is part of a new generation who became adults in this millennium/century (Pew Center Research, 2019). To some, the word “Millennial” sounds like a dirty word. The “M” word, let’s call it. Unfortunately, being associated with this word comes with a few negative connotations—whether deserved or not. Often, those connotations extend to the way Millennials are viewed as the “me” generation, who expect more than they deserve. One especially pervasive trope about Millennials is that they’re inherently narcissistic, as documented by their attachment to their phones, their penchant for selfies, and their desire to share every aspect of their lives online. Despite these negative stereotypes, according to my research and that of others, we are encountering a generation that is willing to challenge the status quo.
The theme of the 2019 PSA meeting “Engaging Millennials: Researching and Teaching about Power, Diversity, and Change,” is my attempt to generate research and other work on the Millennial generation. Karl Mannheim’s essay in “The Problem of Generations” (1923) suggests that the notion of generation is widely used in everyday world to make sense of differences between age groupings in society and to locate individual selves and other persons within a historical time.
As Mannheim argues, we need to pay more attention to the significance of each generation by focusing on issues having to do with the relationship between personal and social change: We need to understand the mechanism of social change and the socio-psychological connections of age and knowledge. Social change in sociology means the alteration of mechanisms within the social structure, characterized by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behavior, social organizations, or value systems. A number of studies show that the Millennials are much more progressive than any generation since the early 1960s. This group has been described as being likely to move the country leftward for decades to come (Pew Center Research 2014). President Obama’s election was the first in which the 18- to 29-year-old age group was drawn exclusively from the Millennial generation. In the 2018 Midterm election, more than 3.3 million voters from the 18-29 age group voted early—a 188 percent increase from 2014. In 2020—the first presidential election where all Millennials will have reached voting age—this generation will be 103 million strong, of which about 90 million will be eligible voters.
But there is a critical issue that we should note. Several analysts have suggested that there is a gathering storm. Some Millennials believe, especially those in academia, that social science is tied to old theories and ideologies about race and gender, among other inconsistencies. These old ideas, as they see it, do not resonate with their views regarding equity. This view suggests that Millennials will continue to challenge the status quo. It may be that in the future most surveys will support multiple gender and race identities. Several questions come to mind. How do we, as sociologists with our sense of history and other issues such as racial and gender inequality, help them along the way? Are we ready for this generation? Are they ready for us? —President Elaine Bell Kaplan
Special Sessions from the 2019 Conference:
PRESIDENTIAL SESSIONS
Thursday, March 28
12:00-1:30 pm Presidential Panel: Millennials and Moral Panic Thursday
Organizer: Elaine Bell Kaplan
Presider: Roberto Rivera, UC Riverside: Criminal Justice System
James Mckeever, Pierce College: Teaching Millennials
April Koeberle, CSU San Marcos: War, Trauma, and Moral Injury: Women Veteran Experiences in Continuous War— Millennials
Hyeyoung Woo, Portland State University: Millennials’ Experience of Transitions to Adulthood: The Case of Korea
This panel will discuss the need for evolving teaching methods to meet the needs of Millennials and Generation Z. Particular attention will be given to the use of technology, popular culture, and social media sites in making the information relevant and keeping the interest of these generations.
1:45-3:15 pm Presidential Panel: Millennials in Social Movements
Organizer: Elaine Bell Kaplan
Presider: Hajar Yazdiha, USC: Social Movements
Chelsea Johnson, USC: TeamNatural: Black Beauty and Millennial Forms of Resistance
LaToya Council, USC: Provision in Families: Professional Black Men’s Perception of Breadwinning in the 21st Century
Karina Santellano USC: The DACA Program: Undocumented College Students & Dream
How are millennials leading the charge in contemporary social change? Through rich studies of beauty politics and the Natural Hair Movement, Black men shaping new masculinities at work and home, and undocumented students navigating institutions of higher education, this panel explores how millennials are bridging and forging new communities, generating hybridized identities that challenge fixed conceptions of identity, and developing new mechanisms for changing the world around them.
3:30-5:00 pm Presidential Panel: Enduring Issues Facing Latinx Millenials
Organizer/Presider: Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, USC: Home/Hogar
Emir Estrada, Arizona State University: Family Work/Trabajo en Familia
Edward Flores, UC Merced: Justice/Justicia
Glenda Flores, UC Irvine: Generations/Generaciones
This panel focuses on Latinx millennials. What are some of the key social issues they face in the early 21rst century, and how did previous young generations of Chicanas/os, Latinas/os and Mexican-Americans contend with these challenges in other historical eras? Each presentation will use empirical research and analysis to focus on a particular theme: justice, generations, family work, and home.
5:15-6:45 pm Presidential Session: Film: F R E E: The Power of Performance
Organizer/Presider: Sharon K. Davis, University of La Verne
Suzanne LaFetra Collier, Producer/Director, presenting
F R E E: The Power of Performance is an award-winning documentary film following five teenagers who use dance and spoken word to transcend the violence, broken families and poverty in their lives. The film captures a life-changing year with the Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, California, as they work together to create a performance based on their life stories. The film spotlights the power of artistic expression as the teens push themselves beyond their struggles to find strength, resilience and hope for the future. https://freethedocumentary.com/watch/
Friday, March 29
10:15-11:45 am Presidential Distinguished Speakers Panel: Celebrating PSA 90 years: Presenting the Past and Present to Address the Challenges Facing Millennials in the Future
Organizer/Presider: Elaine Bell Kaplan
Dean Dorn, Emeritus Professor, California State University Sacramento
Sharon K. Davis, University of La Verne
Amy J. Orr, Linfield College
Three professors with extensive participation in PSA will discuss the past, present, and future of PSA, sociology, and millennials. Dean Dorn, Emeritus Professor, CSU Sacramento, was Secretary/Treasurer/Executive Director and ‘everything’ for PSA from 1993 to 2010. Sharon Davis, 2019 Program Chair, has been an active participant in PSA for many years. She has served as PSA Vice President, chaired numerous PSA committees, and presented research papers annually. Amy Orr, 2017-18 President of PSA, has been active in PSA since 2002, and has served as board member of AKD since 2012.
12:00-1:30 pm Presidential Session: Public Sociology in the Era of Trump: Conversation with Arlie Hochschild and Michael Burawoy Organizer/Presider: Elaine Bell Kaplan
Arlie Hochschild, Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley
Michael Burawoy, Professor, UC Berkeley
Two prominent public sociologists from UC Berkeley will discuss their ideas and research about public sociology today in conversation with PSA President Elaine Bell Kaplan, in an informal format with audience participation. Arlie Hochschild is the author of the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016), based on five years of research with Tea Party supporters in Louisiana, as well as The Second Shift (1989), The Managed Heart (1979), and other sociological classics. Michael Burawoy, author of Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism (1982) and numerous articles, is an advocate of public sociology, and a scholar of capitalism, socialism, postcolonialism, methodology, and social movements to look at globalization from below, as it is lived. The conversation will be facilitated by Elaine Bell Kaplan, whose work uses a race/class/gender perspective to explore the lives of youth. Her most recent book is “We Live in the Shadow”: Inner-City Kids Tell Their Stories Through Photographs, is an ethnographic study that explores life from the perspectives of Black and Latino inner-city kids. Her focus is on how inner-city kids make decisions to help them cope with family life, peer relations and academic achievement and handle the negative options that can make poverty a life sentence; pregnancy, gang involvement and drug abuse.
1:45-3:15 pm Presidential Panel: Engaging Millennials in Sociological Theory, sponsored by the Emeritus and Retired Sociologists Committee
Organizer/Presider: Glenn Goodwin, University of La Verne
Randall Collins, Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Jonathan Turner, UC Santa Barbara and Riverside
Norbert Wiley, Emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana
Kevin McCaffree, University of North Texas
Glenn Goodwin, author of Classical Sociological Theory: Rediscovering the Promise of Sociology (with Joseph Scimecca) and co-editor (with Martin Schwartz) of ‘Professing’ Humanist Sociology, and member of the PSA Emeritus and Retired Sociologists Committee) has assembled a theory panel called “Engaging Millennials in Sociological Theory,” with panelists Randall Collins (PSA President, 1993), Jonathan Turner (PSA President, 1989), Norbert Wiley, and Kevin McCaffree. The panel will respond to a series of questions concerning the apparent disappearance of classical theory, what Millennials are learning today about the classics, the future of classical theory and the effects on the discipline of its apparent demise. Panel members will respond to each other and to comments and questions from the audience.
3:30-5:00 pm Presidential Session: Hip-Hop for Change
Organizer: Elaine Bell Kaplan
Presentation by Oakland non-profit Hip Hop for Change on the history and culture of hip hop and how local, community-based hip hop can be a social movement for challenging white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and materialism and support empowerment, education, and efficacy. This presentation is similar to those given by Hip Hop for Change in schools around the Bay Area.
5:15-6:45 pm Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony
Presentation of PSA 2019 Awards, followed by President Elaine Bell Kaplan’s address, “Engaging Millennials: Researching and Teaching about Power, Diversity, and Change” (see page one of this newsletter for summary)
6:45-8:30 pm Presidential Reception
Featuring special performances by graduate students in the dance program at Mills College
- Volar—Choreographer Andrea Salazar; performers Francesca Cipponeri, Maya Lopez, Augustin Beall, Crystal Gwyn, Xiuting Hong, Shayna Berkowitz, Nomvula Mbambo, Andrea Salazar
- We Were Not Brought This Far to Fail—Choreographer Latanya D. Tigner; performers Casondra Bueche, Kaiyi Du, Kenya Hilliard, Ariel Green-Hill, Christan Thompson, Andrea Salazar, Andrea Schmidt; music by David Holland (arrangement Matthew H. Camp), Sekou Gibson; costumes by Dorcas Mba This piece honors those warriors in our lives (ancestors and living) who speak out, fight, nurture, remind, and encourage us to demand justice in all aspects of humanity.
- Gold Frame—Choreographer Stephanie Hewett; performer Stephanie Hewett; music/text by Lemia Monet-Bodden
- Forgiveness—Choreographer Xiuting Hong; performers Taeylor White, Sara Lavalley
Saturday, March 30
12:00-1:30 pm Presidential Panel: In Millennial Footsteps: Generation Z’s High School Student Movement
Organizer/Presider: Uriel Serrano, UC, Santa Cruz — serrano@ucsc.edu
Jamileh Ebrahimi, Student movement, Youth Organizing Director, RYSE Youth Center, Richmond
Jose Orellana, LOUD for Tomorrow
Veronica Terriquez, UC Santa Cruz
Tony Douangviseth, Executive Director, Youth Together
Uriel Serrano (Graduate Student Representative to the PSA Board of Directors) is organizing a panel “Generation Z’s High School Student Movement” featuring Jamileh Ebrahimi (Youth Organizing Director of RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, CA), Veronica Terriquez (UC Santa Cruz), and two high school student activists. This panel draws together some of California’s youth activists, youth organizers, and sociology’s leading scholars of youth social movements to lead a discussion on youth mobilization in the California context. The panelists have participated and/or researched educational justice organizing, youth voter engagement and mobilization, and immigrant youth movements. This panel will address the diversity of past and current youth activism in Los Angeles, the Central Valley, and the Bay Area, and it will present an opportunity to reflect on the role of sociologist and sociological research in community-based organizing.
Sunday, March 31
8:30-10:00 am Presidential Session: Millennials, Gender and Inequality, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women Organizer/Presider: Sojung Lim, Utah State University
This session features formal papers and research in progress:
- What Millennials Think About Their Future? A Cross-National Study of Millennials` Aspiration, Soo-Yeon Yoon, Sonoma State University
- Seeing the Light? Persistence in Individual Explanations for Gender Inequality, Emily Carian, Stanford University; Amy Johnson, Stanford University
- Fat Women on Instagram: Gendered and Racialized Constructions of Sexual Subjectivity Through Social Media Amanda Rodriguez, University of California Santa Barbara
- Utilizing Intersectionality and Reproductive Justice Frameworks to Teach Millennials about Reproductive Politics Lori Baralt, California State University Long Beach
10:15-11:45 am Presidential Session: #NextGenBlackSoc: New Directions in the Sociology of Black Millennials
Organizer/Presider: Candice Robinson, University of Pittsburgh
This multigenerational panel of advanced graduate students will discuss the way their research topics are brought together by the broad subject of Black Millennials and anchored in building towards a community of the Next Generation of Black Sociologists. Each of their research interests enter the conversation concerning the everyday life of this cohort of Black people from different subjects: civic engagement; family; gender; hiphop/pop culture, and religious identity. A panel discussion style surrounding these varying entry points allows for the panelists to discuss the unexpected variations that emerge when observing populations that are seemingly similar. In addition to their specific subject areas, each person will outline how their research methods take into consideration the use of the internet for context and as a way to contact this population for the use of ethnographic and interview work. Concluding with an informal discussion with the attendees, this panel will be informative with a mission to advance scholarly research in Sociology and more specifically on the everyday life of Black Millennials. Papers:
- Young, Black, and Ambitious: Black Middle Class Millennials` Commitment to Community Candice Robinson, University of Pittsburgh
- Black Christian Millennials: Reconciling Racial and Religious Tensions Shaonta` Allen, University of Cincinnati
- “That Was the Sin That Did Jezebel In”: Black Women`s Recollection and Reclamation of Their Sexuality Ifeyinwa Davis, Louisiana State University
- The Everyday as Problematic: Using Millennial Pop Culture to Explicate Social Theory Maretta McDonald, Louisiana State University
12:00-1:30 pm Presidential Session: Reconstructing Expertise on Resistance: What We Can Learn from Young Communities of Color Mobilizing against Social Inequality
Organizer/Presider: Theresa Johnson, University of California Santa Cruz
This panel will enact a critical dialogue on community resistance and youth agency and resilience to bridge the gap between scholar activism and youth-led community-based efforts combating social injustices. Historically, critical dialogue has omitted low-income communities of color and youth voices. Academic spaces often remain inaccessible to community members in a multitude of ways: geographically, structurally, and intellectually. Thus, omitting young people`s voices in these spaces reifies expertise on resistance to sites of structural oppression as legitimate only by certain actors, namely white scholars studying communities of color for academic purposes. This panel aims to de/re-construct who is commonly thought of as knowledge-producers in the research areas of cultural resistance, grassroots activism, and structural inequality. As graduate students doing researching with (not on) youth of color activists, we are consciously making space for youth by inviting them to share their stories on political engagements and resistance to the issues in their low-income communities. We also seek to share how we, as members of these communities and as researchers in academia, negotiate our own lived experiences as women of color through our community-based scholarship and research methodologies. This panel will touch on a variety of issues that affect communities of color across California, such as young women of color`s rural activism in California`s Central Valley, social justice participatory undergraduate research in public health, and international travel as a vital tool for learning and identity formation. Papers:
- Youth Rural Activism: Organizing and Mobilizing in California`s Central Valley, featuring Valeria Mena Roxanna Villalobos, University of California Santa Cruz
- On Powerful Children and Public Health Karina Ruiz, University of California Santa Cruz with Lesly Martinez Ibanez, my mentee from the Cultivamos Excelencia Scholars at UC Santa Cruz
Oakland to Johannesburg: Travel as Social Resistance, Featuring Amina Daniels Theresa Johnson, University of California Santa Cruz
Author-Meets-Critics Sessions at PSA 2019
These sessions feature discussions between the author and “critics” of newly published books.
Thursday, March 28
12:00-1:30 pm Giants: The Global Power Elite, by Peter Phillips (Seven Stories Press, 2018)
The global power elites are the activist core of the transnational capitalist class–1% of the world`s wealthy people. They serve the uniting function of providing ideological justifications for their shared interests through the corporate media and they establish the parameters of needed actions for implementation by transnational governmental organizations and capitalist nation-states. The global power elite are self-aware of their existence as a numerical minority in the vast sea of impoverished humanity. Roughly 80% of the world`s population lives on less than ten dollars a day and half live on less than three dollars a day. This concentration of protected wealth leads to a crisis of humanity, whereby poverty, war, starvation, mass alienation, media propaganda, and environmental devastation are reaching levels that threaten our species` future.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University since 1994, former Director of Project Censored 1996 to 2010 and President of Media Freedom Foundation 2003 to 2017. He was winner of the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in 1997 for Best Political Book, PEN Censorship Award 2008, Dallas Smythe Award from the Union for Democratic Communications 2009, and the Pillar Human Rights Award from the National Associations of Whistleblowers 2014.
Critics: Susan Rahman, College of Marin; Juan Salinas and Nicole Wolfe, Sonoma State University
Friday, March 29
10:15-11:45 am The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) are Creating A Gender Revolution, by Ann Travers (NYU Press, 2018)
In this book, Ann Travers employs a critical race and anti-colonial perspective to situate transgender children in assemblages of power and privilege. Based on interviews with trans kids and parents of trans kids in Canada and the USA, this book resists the current tendency in mainstream and social media to focus on relatively privileged (although still very vulnerable) trans kids to instead emphasize the ways in which white supremacist, colonial and hetero-patriarchal systems of domination contribute to the unique precarities of racialized/poor/Indigenous/Native trans kids. Travers advocates systemic change to reduce the precarity of those trans kids experiencing multiple inequalities and insists that these changes will benefit all kids, cis or trans. Critics are invited to challenge this analysis and the social change agenda that Travers advocates.
Critics: Mary Robertson, CSU San Marcos; Brandon Robinson, UC Riverside; Luis Gutierrez-Mock, UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Center of Excellence for Transgender Health
1:45-3:15 pm Styling Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Inequality in the Men`s Grooming Industry, by Kristen Barber (Rutgers University Press, 2016)
The twenty-first century has seen the emergence of a new style of man: the metrosexual. Overwhelmingly straight, white, and wealthy, these impeccably coiffed urban professionals spend big money on everything from facials to pedicures, all part of a multi-billion-dollar male grooming industry. Yet as this innovative study reveals, even as the industry encourages men to invest more in their appearance, it still relies on women to do much of the work.
Styling Masculinity investigates how men’s beauty salons have persuaded their clientele to regard them as masculine spaces. To answer this question, sociologist Kristen Barber goes inside Adonis and The Executive, two upscale men’s salons in Southern California. Conducting detailed observations and extensive interviews with both customers and employees, she shows how female salon workers not only perform the physical labor of snipping, tweezing, waxing, and exfoliating, but also perform the emotional labor of pampering their clients and pumping up their masculine egos.
Letting salon employees tell their own stories, Barber not only documents occasions when these workers are objectified and demeaned, but also explores how their jobs allow for creativity and confer a degree of professional dignity. In the process, she traces the vast network of economic and social relations that undergird the burgeoning male beauty industry.
Critics: Miriam Abelson, Portland State University; Tristan Bridges, UC Santa Barbara; Miliann Kang, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
1:45-3:15 pm Growing Up Queer: Kids and the Remaking of LGBTQ Identity, by Mary Robertson (NYU Press, 2018)
Growing Up Queer explores the changing ways that young people are now becoming LGBT-identified in the US. Through interviews and three years of ethnographic research at an LGBTQ youth drop-in center, Mary Robertson focuses on the voices and stories of youths themselves in order to show how young people understand their sexual and gender identities, their interest in queer media, and the role that family plays in their lives.
The young people who participated in this research are among the first generation to embrace queer identities as children and adolescents. This groundbreaking and timely consideration of queer identity demonstrates how sexual and gender identities are formed through complicated, ambivalent processes as opposed to being natural characteristics that one is born with. In addition to showing how youth understand their identities, Growing Up Queer describes how young people navigate queerness within a culture where being gay is the “new normal.” Using Sara Ahmed`s concept of queer orientation, Robertson argues that being queer is not just about one`s sexual and/or gender identity, but is understood through intersecting identities including race, class, ability, and more. By showing how society accepts some kinds of LGBTQ-identified people while rejecting others, Growing Up Queer provides evidence of queerness as a site of social inequality.
For us as scholars trying to engage the Millennial experience and examine power and social change, this book importantly offers us a lens into not only sexuality but also the process of negotiating complex and intersectional identities.
Critics: Ann Travers, Simon Fraser University; James Dean, Sonoma State University; Anna Muraca, Loyola Marymount University
Saturday, March 30
8:30-10:00 am Mixed Messages: Norms and Social Control Around Teen Sex and Pregnancy, by Stefanie Mollborn (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Stefanie Mollborn`s book examines how schools, families, and peers communicate social norms around teen sex, contraception, and pregnancy in different kinds of communities, and how teens negotiate around these norms in their daily lives.
Critics: Hava Gordon, University of Denver; Sarah Miller, Boston University; Krystale Littlejohn, Occidental College; Sinikka Elliott, University of British Columbia
10:15-11:45 am Where the Millennials Will Take Us: A New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure, by Barbara Risman (Oxford University Press, 2018)
Are today`s young adults gender rebels or returning to tradition? In Where the Millennials Will Take Us, Barbara J. Risman reveals the diverse strategies youth use to negotiate the ongoing gender revolution. Using her theory of gender as a social structure, Risman analyzes life history interviews with a diverse set of Millennials to probe how they understand gender and how they might change it. Some are true believers that men and women are essentially different and should be so. Others are innovators, defying stereotypes and rejecting sexist ideologies and organizational practices. Perhaps new to this generation are gender rebels who reject sex categories, often refusing to present their bodies within them and sometimes claiming genderqueer identities. And finally, many youths today are simply confused by all the changes swirling around them.
As a new generation contends with unsettled gender norms and expectations, Risman reminds us that gender is much more than an identity; it also shapes expectations in everyday life, and structures the organization of workplaces, politics, and, ideology. To pursue change only in individual lives, Risman argues, risks the opportunity to eradicate both gender inequality and gender as a primary category that organizes social life.
Critics: Cecilia Ridgeway, Stanford University; Marjukka Ollilainen, Weber State University; Georgiann Davis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Julie Shayne, University of Washington, Bothell
10:15-11:45 am The Medicalization of Marijuana: Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience, by Michelle Newhart and William Dolphin (Taylor & Francis, 2018)
This book analyzes the medicalization of cannabis use, a process that remains incomplete and coexists with the legacy of marijuana use as an illicit recreational substance. Reframing use as “medical” is not merely rhetorical, but changes cannabis itself, as well as changing the behaviors that surrounds use. Based on extensive observation and in-depth interviews in Colorado, this book focuses on the experiences of patients at midlife or older, who must navigate uncertain and changing conditions as they adopt and use medical cannabis for their own health conditions. Chapters follow the order of patient experiences as they navigate the medical cannabis system, addressing questions such as: Is cannabis used similarly to other medicines? How do individuals at midlife decide to try cannabis? How do they discuss this option with doctors, friends and family? How do they decide on routines of use, obtain a supply, and decide if it is helpful? Do they identify with cannabis as a political issue, and do they support the legalization of “recreational” use? Finally, how do patients manage the risks and stigma associated with cannabis use, and what can this tell us about reclaiming a stigmatized identity? Their answers show the deep significance of social construction in shaping behavior, and the role of behavior in medicalization. This session takes on the more provocative points in the book, touching on the role of behavior in medicine, the significance of life course, and what can be learned about dismantling identity stigma from those who support medical cannabis.
Critics: Sheigla Murphy, Institute for Scientific Analysis; Michael Polson, UC Berkeley; Joshua Meisel, Humboldt State University; Burrel Vann, Jr. , UC Irvine
1:45-3:15 pm Blowin` Up: Rap Dreams in South Central, by Jooyoung Lee (University of Chicago Press, 2016)
Blowin` Up follows the careers of aspiring rappers in “South Central” Los Angeles, an area shaped by its proximity to gangs and a glittering entertainment industry. Through nearly five years of in-depth ethnographic work, Lee describes why young Black men channel their time and energy into an improbable career in the music industry. The end result is a portrait of how the creative process shapes the lives of marginalized black men.
Critics: Black Hawk Hancock, DePaul University; Edward Flores, UC Merced
3:30-5:00 pm Guys Like Me: Five Wars, Five Veterans for Peace, by Michael Messner (Rutgers University Press, 2018)
Over the last few decades, as the United States has become embroiled in foreign war after foreign war, some of the most vocal activists for peace have been veterans. These veterans for peace come from all different races, classes, regions, and generations.
Guys Like Me introduces us to five ordinary men who have done extraordinary work as peace activists: World War II veteran Ernie Sanchez, Korean War veteran Woody Powell, Vietnam veteran Gregory Ross, Gulf War veteran Daniel Craig, and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Jonathan Hutto. Acclaimed sociologist Michael Messner offers rich profiles of each man, recounting what led him to join the armed forces, what he experienced when fighting overseas, and the guilt and trauma he experienced upon returning home. He reveals how the pain and horror of the battlefront motivated these onetime warriors to reconcile with former enemies, get involved as political activists, and help younger generations of soldiers.
Guys Like Me is an inspiring multigenerational saga of men who were physically or psychically wounded by war, but are committed to healing themselves and others, forging a path to justice, and replacing endless war with lasting peace.
Critics: Jeffrey Montez de Oca, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Tristan Bridges, UC Santa Barbara
Film Sessions
Thursday, March 28
5:15-6:45 pm Presidential Session: Film Session: F R E E:The Power of Performance
Organizer: Sharon K. Davis, University of La Verne
F R E E: The Power of Performance is an award-winning documentary film following five teenagers who use dance and spoken word to transcend the violence, broken families and poverty in their lives. The film captures a life-changing year with the Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, California, as they work together to create a performance based on their life stories.The film spotlights the power of artistic expression as the teens push themselves beyond their struggles to find strength, resilience and hope for the future. Producer/Director Suzanne LaFetra Collier will present the film.
Saturday, March 30
5:15-6:45 pm Humor that Hurts: It Isn`t Funny Unless Everybody Laughs
Organizer: Marcia Marx, CSU San Bernardino
The convenience store clerk Apu, who “graduated first in his class of seven million at `Caltech` — Calcutta Technical Institute — going on to earn his doctorate at the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.)” has been until recently a beloved character on The Simpsons since the animated series` inception in 1990. A recent documentary flips the narrative, arguing that the producers have been insensitive at best over the portrayal of South Asians in the “persons” of Apu and his family. This led us to explore other comedic historical and contemporary figures who may convey humor, but at the expense of those at the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, disability, race and ethnicity. We will share our findings in a series of short video clips followed by discussion.
Discussants: Marcia Marx, Patricia Little, Mary Texeira, and Elsa Valdez, CSU San Bernardino
Committee-sponsored Sessions at PSA 2019
Thursday, March 28
1:45-3:15 pm Engaging Activities for Teaching Inequalities Part 1, sponsored by the Committee on Teaching
Student Mentoring and Support: Experiences, Strategies, and Innovations, sponsored by the Endowment Committee
3:30-5:00 pm Working At The Community College: How To Become A Full Time Faculty Member at A Community College, sponsored by Committee on Community Colleges
5:15-6:45 pm Sociological Star Speaker Series: Jonathan Turner: The More Sociology Tries to Become Relevant, The Less Relevant it Becomes, sponsored by the Emeritus and Retired Sociologists Committee
Putting Your Best Face Forward, Sponsored by Student Affairs Committee
Friday, March 29
8:30-10:00 am Engaging Activities for Teaching Inequalities Part 2, sponsored by the Committee on Teaching
12:00-1:30 pm Best Practices in Teaching Online Classes, sponsored by the Committee on Teaching
Spirituality, Space, and Border/s in M(other)work Research: Chicana Latina Scholarship in the Field, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women
1:45-3:15 pm Presidential Panel: Engaging Millennials in Sociological Theory, sponsored by the Emeritus and Retired Sociologists Committee
3:30-5:00 pm Doing Emotional Labor in the Classroom, sponsored by the Committee on Teaching
Saturday, March 30
8:30-10:15 am How Can New Graduates Market Sociology as a Skill Set, sponsored by the Committee on Applied, Clinical, and Public Sociology
Surviving and Thriving: Mental Health, Social Support, and Self-Care in Academia, sponsored by Student Affairs Committee
Activism Related to Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Violence; sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women
10:15-11:45 am Women of Color Across the Life Course, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women
12:00-1:30 pm Mothering in the Field, Sponsored by Committee on the Status of Women
1:45-3:15 pm Be The Change You Wish To See In The World: Teaching At The Community College Level, sponsored by the Membership Committee
3:30-5:00 pm Open Discussion Session: Salon des Sexualités, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Persons and Sexualities Organizer Jodi O`Brien
Gendered Resistance to the Sociopolitical Landscape, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women
5:15-6:45 pm How to Get Your Work Published: A Conversation with Editors of Sociological Perspectives and Members of the PSA Publications Committee, sponsored by the Publications Committee
You`re Not a Fraud: Recognizing and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, sponsored by the Student Affairs Committee
Sunday, March 31
8:30-10:00 am Teaching Under-prepared Students, sponsored by the Committee on Community Colleges
Presidential Session: Millennials, Gender and Inequality, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women
New Kind of Session: Open Discussion
Academic conferences like PSA have been running pretty much the same for some time, consisting primarily of sessions where “the experts” talk and “the audience” listens. This year, PSA is trying something new, an initiative to include more opportunities for attendees (students, faculty, everybody!) to engage in open discussion on areas of common interest—what we are calling “Open Discussion” sessions. Topical area organizers from the Program Committee will be present to introduce topics and facilitate discussion. The Open Discussion sessions are scheduled after a sequence of sessions in the topical area, so that audience and authors from those sessions can bring topics they want to talk about. The goal is to build intellectual community and networks among attendees interested in the same research areas.
Friday, March 29, 3:30-5:00 pm—Crime, Law, and Deviance (Facilitator Tanya Nieri, UC Riverside);
and Environmental Sociology n the Age of Climate Crisis: Directions for Research, Teaching, and Community Engagement (Facilitator Laura Earles, Lewis-Clark State College)
Saturday, March 30, 12:00-1:30 pm—The Ethnographer’s Circle, “How to Do Research” (Facilitator Black Hawk Hancock, featuring Hillary Angelo, UC Santa Cruz; Andrew Deener, U. of Connecticut; Waverly Duck, U. of Pittsburgh; Jennifer Reich, U. of Colorado, Denver)
Saturday, March 30, 3:30-5:00 pm—Salon des Sexualités (Facilitators Jodi O’Brien, Seattle University, and Sean Davis, Mira Costa College and the PSA LGBTQ+ Committee);
Migration/Immigration (Facilitator Daniel Olmos, CSU Northridge);
and Race/Ethnicity (Facilitator Marcia Marx, CSU San Bernardino)
Sessions of special interest to students at PSA 2019:
Thursday, March 28
1:45-3:15 pm Student Affairs Committee meeting
3:30-5:00 pm Working At the Community College: How to Become a Full Time Faculty Member at a Community College, sponsored by the Committee on Community Colleges
5:15-6:45 pm Putting Your Best Face Forward, sponsored by the Student Affairs Committee The objective of this workshop is to provide guidance for undergraduate and graduate students seeking to further their academic studies or gain employment.
Film & Presidential Session: F R E E: The Power of Performance An award-winning documentary film following five teenagers who use dance and spoken word to transcend the violence, broken families and poverty in their lives.
Friday, March 29
8:30-10:00 am Careers for BA and MA Sociologists, organized by the American Sociological Association
1:45-3:15 pm Grad Fair This year PSA will again offer a Grad Fair for undergraduate students to meet with representatives from PSA region graduate programs. Graduate programs scheduled to participate: Washington State University, Pullman
Utah State University
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Colorado, Denver Humboldt State University
University of Nevada, Reno University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Northern Arizona University
New Mexico State University
San Diego State University
California State University, San Marcos
3:30-5:00 pm Presidential Session: Hip Hop for Change Presentation by Oakland non-profit Hip Hop for Change on the history and culture of hip hop and how local, community-based hip hop can be a social movement for challenging white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and materialism and support empowerment, education, and efficacy.
8:00-10:00 pm Student Reception, sponsored by the Student Affairs Committee Games, giveaways, snacks, and a performance by Oakland non-profit Hip Hop for Change.
Saturday, March 30
8:30-10:00 am Surviving and Thriving: Mental Health, Social Support, and Self-Care in Academia, sponsored by Student Affairs Committee
How Can New Graduates Market Sociology as a Skill Set, sponsored by the Committee on Applied, Clinical, and Public Sociology
10:15-11:45 am Getting Jobs in Academia
12:00-1:30 pm Presidential Session: In Millennial Footsteps: Generation Z`s High School Student Movement Youth activists are currently challenging and transforming this system through protest. engagement and mobilization, and immigrant youth movements.
1:45-3:15 pm Be The Change You Wish To See In The World: Teaching At The Community College Level, sponsored by the Membership Committee
5:15-6:45 pm How to Get Your Work Published: A Conversation with Editors of Sociological Perspectives and Members of the PSA Publications Committee, sponsored by the Publications Committee
You`re Not a Fraud: Recognizing and Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, sponsored by the Student Affairs Committee Panelists will discuss their own experiences with imposter syndrome as well as effective strategies for overcoming this common issue that undergraduate and graduate students alike experience. Audience members will be invited to participate in the discussion.
Sunday, March 31
10:15-11:45 am Presidential Session: #NextGenBlackSoc: New Directions in the Sociology of Black Millennials This multigenerational panel of advanced graduate students will discuss the way their research topics are brought together by the broad subject of Black Millennials and anchored in building towards a community of the Next Generation of Black Sociologists.
12-1:30 pm Presidential Session: Reconstructing Expertise on Resistance: What We Can Learn from Young Communities of Color Mobilizing against Social Inequality This panel will enact a critical dialogue on community resistance and youth agency and resilience to bridge the gap between scholar activism and youth-led community-based efforts combating social injustices.
2019 Program Committee
Program Chair: Sharon Davis, University of La Verne
| Topical Area | Name | Affiliation |
| Applied, Clinical, & Public Sociology | Sophie Nathenson | Oregon Institute of Technology |
| Asian/Asian American Sociology | Jacob Huang | California Baptist University |
| Crime, Law, and Deviance | Tanya Nieri | UC Riverside |
| Art, Culture, and Popular Culture | Linda Rillorta | Mt. San Antonio College |
| Childhood and Youth | Sharon Davis | University of La Verne |
| Education—Higher Education | Megan Thiele | San Jose State University |
| Education—other than Higher Ed. | Joe Johnston | Gonzaga University |
| Environmental Sociology | Laura Earles | Lewis-Clark State College |
| Economic Sociology | Elizabeth Sowers | CSU Channel Islands |
| Ethnography | Black Hawk Hancock | DePaul University |
| Food and Society | Black Hawk Hancock | DePaul University |
| Life Course and Aging | Deborah Thorne | University of Idaho |
| Gender | Marjukka Ollilainen | Weber State University |
| Intimate Relationships, Families, and Reproductive Politics | Laury Oaks | UC Santa Barbara |
| Marxist Sociology/Critical Sociology | Jake Wilson | CSU Long Beach |
| Media and Communication | Linda Rillorta | Mt. San Antonio College |
| Medical Sociology and Health | Margaret Gough | University of La Verne |
| Methods | Robert Obrien | University of Oregon |
| Migration/Immigration | Daniel Olmos | CSU Northridge |
| Latinx Sociology | Manuel Barajas | CSU Sacramento |
| Labor and Labor Movements | Jake Wilson | CSU Long Beach |
| Politics and the State (Political Sociology) | Christopher Chase Dunn | UC Riverside |
| Population and Demography | Robert Obrien | University of Oregon |
| Peace, War, and the Military | Augustine Kposowa | UC Riverside |
| Race/Ethnicity | Marcia Marx | CSU San Bernardino |
| Race, Class and Gender | Kristy Shih | CSU Long Beach |
| Religion (including Sociology of Islam) | Reid Leamaster | Glendale Comm. College (AZ) |
| Regional Studies, Transnationalism, Globalization, and Development | Shweta Adur | CSU Los Angeles |
| Science and Technology | Yu Tao | Stevens Inst. of Technology |
| Sexualities | Jodi O’Brien | Seattle University |
| Social Movements and Social Change | Kelsy Kretschmer | Oregon State University |
| Social Psychology, Identity, and Emotions | Bill Rocque | University of Redlands |
| Social Stratification, Inequality, and Poverty | Ranita Ray | University of Nevada Las Vegas |
| Sport and Leisure | Michelle Robertson | St. Edwards University |
| Urban and Community Studies | Carol Ward | Brigham Young University |
| Theory | Glenn Goodwin | University of La Verne |
| Work and Organizations | Jill Harrison | University of Oregon |
| Teaching Sociology | Susan Murray | San Jose State University |
| Teaching Sociology: Community Colleges | Jackie Logg | Cabrillo College |
| Undergraduate Roundtables and Posters | Robert Kettlitz | Hastings College |
2019 Committee Sponsored Sessions for Open Call
| Title | Committee |
| Academic Freedom and Contingent Faculty | Committee on Freedom in Research and Teaching |
| Women of Color across the Life Course | Committee on the Status of Women |
| Millennials, Gender and Inequality | Committee on the Status of Women |
| Activism Related to Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence | Committee on the Status of Women |
| Mothering in the Academy | Committee on the Status of Women |
| Gendered Resistance to the Sociopolitical Landscape | Committee on the Status of Women |
| Employment at Community Colleges | Committee on Community Colleges |
| Teaching Under-prepared Students | Committee on Community Colleges |
| Mental Health and Students | Committee on Community Colleges |
| Engaging Activities for Teaching Inequalities | Committee on Teaching |
| Graduate Teaching | Committee on Teaching |
| Teaching Ideas for Crime and Deviance | Committee on Teaching |
| Best Practices in Teaching Online Classes | Committee on Teaching |
| Engaging Research in Introductory Sociology | Committee on Teaching |
| Doing Emotional Labor in the Classroom | Committee on Teaching |
| Student Mentoring and Support: Experiences, Strategies, and Innovations | Endowment Committee |