2015 Long Beach
“People, Place, and Power” – the PSA in Long Beach, California, April 1-4, 2015
President: Patricia A. Gwartney, University of Oregon
Program Chair: Wendy Ng, San Jose State University
The 2015 conference included a special pre-conference workshop by Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) as well as the following special sessions:
PRESIDENTIAL SESSIONS
Wednesday evening, April 1: Sociology Star Speakers Series, co-sponsored by PSA Membership Committee: Michael Messner
We are delighted to kick-off the 86th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association on Wednesday evening, April 1, 2015, with what we anticipate will become an annual highlight of our conference – “The Sociology Stars Speaker Series.” The purpose of this series is to give all conference participants an opportunity to see some of our biggest sociology stars in action and learn about the work they are doing. We are so pleased and proud that our inaugural “star” will be Dr. Michael Messner of the University of Southern California. Michael is a dynamic and engaging speaker who has accumulated an international reputation for his work in the areas of gender and sport, and men, feminism and politics. His planned talk entitled “Ending Violence against Women: Opportunities and Tensions in Men’s Work as Feminist Allies,” will share some of the research he conducted for a book with Max A. Greenberg and Tal Perez which provides insights on how men have been involved in the anti-violence movement since the 1970s. It will be an event not to be missed!
Thursday afternoon, April 2: A Sociology of Faculty Unions in Higher Education, organized by Wendy Ng and Gary Hytrek
Following decades of public divestment from public higher education and neoliberal reforms that have eroded faculty shared governance, faculty unions are pushing back against the crisis in academia and working to build broader alliances to reclaim public goods. Panelists include: Wendy Ng (SJSU, CFA), Gary Hytrek (CSULB), Michael Dreiling (University of Oregon), Jose Padin (PSU), Martin Manteca (SEIU Local 721), Lillian Taiz (CSULA), and Jennifer Reed (UNLV).
Thursday evening, April 2: Questions of Social Justice: Ferguson, Missouri and Beyond,
organized by Program Chair Wendy Ng and Blackhawk Hancock
The events in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York demonstrate how racial inequities in our judicial system erode perceptions of fairness among communities of color and reinforce beliefs that accountability and justice are reserved for white victims or individuals of higher social status. Given the growing race and class stratification in employment, education, housing, and criminal justice, this panel questions notions of institutional legitimacy, accountability, and social justice around the unfortunate, untimely, and unnecessary deaths of young men of color. Panelists include: Blackhawk Hancock (DePaul University), Melinda Abdullah,(CSULA), Bryan Sykes (UC Irvine), Erwin Chemerinsky (UC Irvine).
Friday afternoon, April 3: Re-Visioning People, Place, and Power: Building a Social Justice Movement in Long Beach, California,
organized by Gary Hytrek
The acceleration of Neoliberal globalization in the post-1980 period spurred the rapid deindustrialization and the growth of low-wage work and inequality throughout the United States. After years of neoliberal reforms, Los Angeles County became the epicenter of resistance to the attack on workers’ rights and the privatization and commodification of everyday life. Through organizing and alliance building, research and advocacy, community-labor coalitions have pushed back and achieved number of important victories for working families. In this panel we look at the development, evolution, challenges and future possibilities of this model to re-build our communities with reference to the case of Long Beach. Panelists include: Gary Hytrek (CSULB), Chris Tilly (UCLA), Roxana Tynan and Jeaninne Pearce, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE); Tom Walsh, UniteHere11 President.
Friday afternoon, April 3: Two back-to-back sessions on the Special Issue of The American Sociologist, by and about PSA as a regional sociological association,
organized by Dennis Downey and Chuck Hohm
Part I, Serving Collective Needs in a Shifting Context, features Presider Valerie Jenness (UC Irvine), and presenters Dean Dorn, (CSU Sacramento), Jonathan Turner (UC Riverside), Enrico Marceli, Jane Kil, and Genesis Reyes (SDSU), Harry Mersmann (San Joaquin Delta College), Dennis Downey, (CSUCI), Amy Orr, (Linfield College), Matthew Carlson and Tina Burdsall, (PSU), Jessica Schultz, and Robert O’Brien (U of Oregon), James Elliott (Rice University), David Smith (UC Irvine), Kathy Kuipers and Laura Obernesser (U of Montana). Part II, Maintaining & Serving a Diverse Membership, features Presider Amy Wharton (WSU), and presenters Patricia Gwartney (U of Oregon), Linda Rillorta (Mt. San Antonio College), Keith Farrington (Whitman College), Lora Vess (U of Alaska, Southeast), Todd Migliaccio (CSUS), Jennifer Murphy (CSUS), Peter Collier (PSU), Sharon Araji ( U of Colorado, Denver), Vikas Gumbhir, (Gonzaga University), Michelle Madsen Camacho (USD), Marie Sarita Gaytan (U of Utah), Samuel Gregory Prieto, (USD), A. Carli Richie-Zavaleta (Drexel University) , LaTasha Monique Warmsley, (currently unaffiliated), Ramon Torrecilha (CSUDH), and Amy Wharton (WSU).
Friday evening, April 3: Expanding Feminisms: Intersectionalities, Technologies, and Constituencies,
organized by Jodi O’Brien
Particpants include: Mark Anthony Hunter (UCLA), Tal Peretz (USC), Gary K. Perry (Seattle University), and Zandria Robinson (University of Memphis).
Author-Meets-Critics Sessions
Thursday, April 2
5:15 to 6:45 pm Messner, Greenberg, and Peretz, Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women Beacon Ballroom B
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Paradise Transplanted: Migration and the Making of California
Gardens Beacon Ballroom A
Friday, April 3
1:45 to 3:15 pm Dean, Straights: Heterosexuality in Post-Closeted Culture Regency Ballroom B
3:30 to 5:00 pm Myers-Lipton, Ending Extreme Inequality: An Economic Bill of Rights to Eliminate
Poverty Regency Ballroom C
Espiritu, Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees
Regency Ballroom B
Rosenfeld, What Unions No Longer Do Beacon Ballroom B
Saturday, April 4
1:45 to 3:15 pm Shayne, Taking Risks: Feminist Activism and Research in the Americas
Regency Ballroom D
Film Sessions
Wednesday, April 1 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm Film as Pedagogy: Black Lives Matter? Pacific
Thursday, April 2 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm “A Bold Peace” with Michael Dreiling Pacific