PSA Awards
Except for the Distinguished Scholarship Award, the deadline for all 2023 awards nominations is February 1, 2023.
Send nominations materials for the Distinguished Scholarship Award, Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award, Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award, and Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award to awards@pacificsoc.org
Send nominations materials for the Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award and the Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology teaching.awards@pacificsoc.org
Send nominations materials for the Social Conscience Award to social.conscience@pacificsoc.org
The Distinguished Scholarship Award The Distinguished Scholarship Award is granted to sociologists from the Pacific region in recognition of major intellectual contributions embodied in a recently published book or series of at least three articles on a common theme. To be eligible for the 2023 award, a book or the most recent article in a series must have been published in 2021 or later. If a book has both a hardback and paperback copyright date and no significant changes have been made in the book between editions, the committee will consider the earlier copyright date as the one determining eligibility for the award. Nominations must be from individual members of the PSA; the Committee does not accept nominations from publishers. Edited books are not eligible for this award. The deadline for nominations is November 1, 2022. You will need to send three copies of the book; request mailing address when you submit nomination information. Send nominations to awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award The Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award honors individuals whose distinctions as teachers have made a significant impact on how sociology is taught. It is typically given for contributions spanning several years or an entire career. Nominations for this award should be submitted in packet form and include the following information: 1) a summary statement of the nominee’s contributions to the teaching of sociology that may include, but is not limited to, honors and awards received by the nominee, publications or scholarly activity related to teaching/pedagogy, papers presented at national conferences on teaching/pedagogy, innovative approaches to teaching, a discussion of the nominee’s impact in disseminate knowledge, leadership in teaching, or mentoring students; 2) a current curriculum vitae; 3) a minimum of four letters of support — at least two from students and two from colleagues — including the nominator’s letter; and 4) other supporting documents as deemed relevant (optional). Prior nominees are encouraged to re-submit updated materials.
For the 2023 cycle, this award will be given by the PSA Committee on Teaching; send nominations to teaching.awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology The Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology is designed to honor and encourage the work of assistant professors (untenured), graduate student lecturers, and lecturer faculty. “Early career” is defined as fewer than seven years of teaching experience. This award recognizes innovative and creative approaches to teaching and/or mentoring that advance equity with historically excluded communities. This includes approaches that challenge structural and institutional barriers, particularly those faced by historically excluded communities, and/or improve diversity, inclusivity, and equity with students from said communities. Application Requirements: (A) Statement of Nomination written by a colleague or an applicant (self-nomination). This statement should define, describe, and demonstrate the following: a situational context revolving around inequality, an innovation in teaching sociology to intervene in said context, and innovation’s impact. (B) Two Letters of Support: At least one letter of support should be from a professional colleague, such as a staff member, a faculty member serving in an administrative role (e.g., department chair), or senior faculty member. It is encouraged that the second letter of suppport is authored by a student. (C) Current C.V. for the nominee. (D) Supplemental Material: Nominee or nominator should provide items that demonstrate (a) evidence of the innovation itself (e.g., examples of pedagogical practice, assignment) and (b) evidence of this innovation’s success in advancing equity (e.g., student evaluations, peer teaching evaluations).
For the 2023 cycle, this award will be given by the PSA Committee on Teaching; send nominations to teaching.awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award The Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award honors sociological work in the Pacific region (whether by an academic or non-academic), that has made a positive impact on social and organizational institutions, improved organizational performance, contributed to community betterment, and/or eased human suffering. Nominations for this award should be submitted in packet form and include the following information: 1) a nominating letter that provides an overview of the nominee’s distinguished praxis contributions, which should make clear how the nominee’s work has made a positive impact and how the contributions are above and beyond typical professional service; 2) a minimum of two letters of support from individuals having direct knowledge of the nominee’s contribution to sociological praxis; 3) supporting documents, examples of which include, but are not limited to, presentations at scholarly conferences, published articles, reports, media materials, community documents, or grant/contract proposals primarily authored by the nominee, that speak to this significant contribution. Prior nominees are encouraged to re-submit updated materials. Send nominations to awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award Each year, the Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award honors an outstanding article published in the most recent volume of Sociological Perspectives. To be eligible, the article must be worthy of special recognition for outstanding scholarship and contribution to the discipline. For the 2023 award, the article must have been published in 2022 (Vol. 65). For the 2023 awards cycle, awardee will be selected by the PSA Publications Committee.
The Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award The Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award recognizes an undergraduate student or students for a paper of high professional quality. This award includes a $200 honorarium and two nights of lodging at the conference hotel. To be eligible a paper must be: 1) worthy of special recognition for outstanding scholarship; 2) written by an undergraduate student or students in the Pacific region; 3) written or substantially revised in the last year; 4) presented at the upcoming PSA annual conference; and 5) in article format but not yet published (needs to meet the standards for a submission to Sociological Perspectives–maximum 10,000 words or 40 pages, inclusive of all figures and graphs). Nominations for the award must include a copy of the paper, an abstract, and a minimum of one letter of support.
Note: an individual faculty may nominate a maximum of 3 papers for this award.
Send nominations to awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award The Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award recognizes a graduate student or students for a paper of high professional quality. This award includes a $200 honorarium and two nights of lodging at the conference hotel. To be eligible a paper must be: 1) worthy of special recognition for outstanding scholarship; 2) written by a graduate student or students in the Pacific region; 3) written or substantially revised in the last year; 4) presented at the upcoming PSA annual conference; and 5) in article format but not yet published (needs to meet the standards for a submission to Sociological Perspectives–maximum 10,000 words or 40 pages, inclusive of all figures and graphs). Nominations for the award must include a copy of the paper, an abstract, and a minimum of one letter of support. Send nominations to awards@pacificsoc.org .
The Social Conscience Award The Pacific Sociological Association’s Social Conscience Award is given to a worthy community-based organization located in the city in which the PSA Annual meeting is held — for 2023, this is Bellevue/Seattle, Washington. This is a monetary award and honors a community organization that is engaged in providing a much-needed social service in the community. The awardees will be selected by the Social Conscience Committee; send nominations to social.conscience@pacificsoc.org
2022-2023 Awards Committee Members:
Suzel Bozada-Deas, Sonoma State University
Minjeong Kim, San Diego State University
Hernan Ramirez, College of the Canyons
Amy Lubitow, Portland State University, Chair
Chioun Lee, University of California Riverside
Michael Cope, Brigham Young University
PSA 2023 Awards
Social Conscience Award: Wa Na Wari
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Rocio R. Garcia (Arizona State University), “’We’re Not All Anti-Choices’: How Controlling Images Shape Latina/x Feminist Abortion Advocacy” (65:6, December 2022)
Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award: Miriam Abelson (Portland State University)
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Dinur Blum (CSU Los Angeles)
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Nadia Y. Kim (Loyola Marymount University) for Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA (Stanford University Press, 2021)
Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper (Honorable Mention): Ariel Segura (Portland State University) for “Motivations for a Green, Just, and Connected World: Analyzing Narratives of Young Environmental Activists in the Pacific Northwest”
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper: Kennedy Chi-Pan Wong (University of Southern California) for “Cross-national Alliance against Authoritarianism: Mapping ‘Our’ Struggles to the Broader World”
2021-2022 Awards Committee Members:
Suzel Bozada-Deas, Sonoma State University, Co-Chair
Minjeong Kim, San Diego State University, Co-Chair
Hernan Ramirez, College of the Canyons
beginning 2022 awards cycle:
Amy Lubitow, Portland State University
Chioun Lee, University of California Riverside
Michael Cope, Brigham Young University
PSA 2022 Awards
Social Conscience Award: Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Jeffrey Sacha, American River College
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: “No Choice but to be Essential: Expanding Dimensions of Precarity During COVID-19”, by Lola Loustaunau, Lina Stepick, Ellen Scott, Larissa Petrucci, and Miriam Henifin, all of University of Oregon (2021:Issue 5, October)
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Matthew Clair, Stanford University, for Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Distinguished Scholarship Award, Honorable Mention: Brandon Andrew Robinson, University of California Riverside, for Coming Out to the Streets: LGBTQ Youth Experiencing Homelessness (UC Press, 2020)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award: Maura Kelly, Portland State University
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Meghna Mukherjee, University of California Berkeley, for “Hamstrung by Hardship: The Clinic’s Role in Protecting Egg Donors’ Reproductive Labour in Kolkata, India”
2020-2021 Awards Committee Members:
Miriam Abelson, Portland State University, Co-Chair
Ethel Nicdao, CSU San Bernardino, Co-Chair
Suzel Bozada-Deas, Sonoma State University
Hernan Ramirez, College of the Canyons
beginning 2021 awards cycle:
Minjeong Kim, San Diego State University
Alice Gates, University of Portland
PSA 2021 AWARDS
Distinguished Scholarship Award : Tahseen Shams, University of Toronto
Book: Here, There, and Elsewhere: The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World (Stanford University Press, 2020)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Young-Mi Kim (Yonsei University), Heiwon Kwon (Dongduk Women’s University), and Hyunji Kwon (Seoul National University)
“Categorical Matching as an Organizational Condition for Gender Inequality in the Korean Labor Market” (Volume 63, Issue 1)
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award : Kayonne Christy, University of British Columbia
“Minimizing Race through Colourblind Healthcare: Examining Black Women’s Experiences of Medical Racism during Prenatal Care”
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award, Honorable Mention: Meghna Mukherjee, University of California Berkeley
“How Do You Want Your Eggs? The Medical Management of Kin-Making and Stratified Reproduction in the Bay Area and Kolkata”
2019-20 Awards Committee Members:
Debora Paterniti, Sonoma State University, Co-Chair
Miriam Abelson, Portland State University, Co-Chair
Christina Sanchez Volatier, University of Western New Mexico
Ethel Nicdao, CSU San Bernardino
Hyeyoung Woo, Portland State University
Social Conscience Committee: Oluwakemi Balogun, University of Oregon, and Jennifer Puentes, Eastern Oregon University
PSA 2020 AWARDS
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Ranita Ray, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Book: The Making of a Teenage Service Class: Poverty and Mobility in an American City (UC Press, 2017)
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Dilshani Sarathchandra, University of Idaho
Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award:
Vikas Gumbhir, Gonzaga University
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award:
Alice Gates, University of Portland
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Sarah Ahmed, University of Oregon
“Women Left Behind: Migration, Agency, and the Pakistani Woman”
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Ester Carolina Apesoa-Varano, University of California, Davis
“From Shame to Dignity: Elderly Women, Depression, and the Feminine Self” (Volume 62, Issue 2)
Social Conscience Award: One Oregon Coalition, Eugene, Oregon
The PSA Social Conscience Committee selected the One Oregon Coalition
PSA 2019 AWARDS
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Abigail Leslie Andrews, University of California, San Diego
Book: Undocumented Politics: Place, Gender, and the Pathways of Mexican Migrants (UC Press, 2018)
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Caleb Scoville, University of California, Berkeley
“Constructing Environmental Compliance: Law, Science, and the Morality of Endangered Species Conservation in California’s Delta”
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Celeste Atkins, Cochise College
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Caitlin Patler, University of California, Davis
“To Reveal or Conceal: How Diverse Undocumented Youth Navigate Legal Status Disclosure” Volume 61:6 (December 2018)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award: Leontina Hormel, University of Idaho
Social Conscience Award: Boost! West Oakland
PSA 2018 AWARDS
Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award: Viraji Weeraseena, University of California, Riverside
“The Structural Sources of Violent Crimes in Post-Civil War Sri Lanka”
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Armand Rene Gutierrez, University of California San Diego
“The Determinants of Remittances among the Children of Mexican- and Filipino-American Migrants”
Social Conscience Award: Khmer Girls in Action, of Long Beach, California
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Aya Kimura Ida, California State University Sacramento
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Jennifer Reich, University of Colorado Denver
Book: Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines (New York University Press, 2016)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Kevin Estep
“Constructing a Language Problem: Status-based Power Devaluation and the Threat of Immigrant Inclusion” Volume 60:3 (June 2017)
Honorable Mention: Hui Liu, Corinne Reczek, Samuel C.H. Mindes, and Shannon Shen
“The Health Disparities of Same-sex Cohabitors at the Intersection of Race-ethnicity and Gender” Volume 60:3 (June 2017)
PSA 2017 AWARDS
Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award: Allison Nasson (University of Puget Sound)
“Donor Friendly Victimhood: Narrative Construction as a Fundraising Strategy”
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Hyunsu Oh (University of California Merced)
“Immigration Pathway and Life Satisfaction: The Case of Female Marriage Migrants in
Contemporary South Korea”
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award: Dr. Susan Peterson (Clark County School District)
Social Conscience Award: Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Portland, Oregon
Early Career Innovation in Teaching Sociology Award: Dr. Meredith Williams (Humboldt State University)
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Dr. Jennifer Utrata (University of Puget Sound)
Book: Women Without Men: Single Mothers and Family Change in the New Russia (2015, Cornell University Press
PSA 2016 AWARDS
Distinguished Scholarship Award: Michael Messner (University of Southern California), Max Greenberg (University of Southern California), and Tal Peretz (Auburn University)
Book: Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women (2015, Oxford University Press)
Early Career Award for Innovation in Teaching Sociology: Luis Sanchez (California State University Channel Islands)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award: Michelle Inderbitzin (Oregon State University)
Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Erin Cech (Rice University)
Paper: “Engineers or Engineeresses? Self-conceptions and the Development of Gendered Professional Identities” 58(1):56-77 Spring 2015
Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award: Danya Axelrad-Hausman (University of Puget Sound)
Paper: “Seeking Justice: Examining Identity Formation Within the Enivironmental Justice Movement”
Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Jo Mhairi Hale (University of California Davis)
Paper: “Impact of the Great Depression and Cumulative Inequality on Cognitive Decline”
Social Conscience Award: Women’s Economic Agenda Project, Oakland, CA
PSA 2015 AWARDS
2015 Distinguished Scholarship Award: Paul Almeida, Mobilizing Democracy: Globalization and Citizen Protest
Honorable mention: Randol Contreras, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream
The 2015 Dean S. Dorn Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award: Karen Pyke, University of California Riverside
The 2015 Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Praxis Award: Valerie Francisco, University of Portland
The 2015 Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award: Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke, “Self-Esteem and Identities,” Vol. 57(4):409-433.
Honorable mention: Valerie Jenness, “Pesticides, Prisoners, and Policy: Complexity and Praxis in Research on Transgender Prisoners and Beyond,” Vol. 57(1):6-26.
The 2015 Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award: Jesus Perez, “Latina/o Self-Identified Students at HSU: Beyond Their Freshmen Year”
The 2015 Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award: Hasan Mahmud, “Social Determinants of Remitting Practices Among Bangladeshi Migrants in Japan”
Social Conscience Award: Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community